12 Days of Sanvers Christmas
by queercapwriting
Summary: Sanvers at Christmas, ft. a very flustered, very bi Kara Danvers and the return of Lucy Lane. Starring Sanvers at Kara's mandatory holiday decorating party; mistletoe gone rogue at the DEO courtesy of Susan Vasquez aggressively hanging it everywhere Alex and Maggie go; their date to the L Corp holiday party; and Maggie discovering the one winter activity that Alex is TERRIBLE at.
1. Chapter 1

Maggie's first impression upon walking into Kara's apartment was that they'd stepped out of a National City hallway and directly into Santa's flipping workshop. Except with more aliens and less snow and, somehow, impossibly, more holiday lights.

Christmas music was blasting, tinsel was strewn everywhere, there were at least four different menorahs, and the entire apartment smelled of cinnamon and chocolate and pine needles.

Kara pulled her into a lopsided but full-bodied hug even before she greeted Alex, squeeing, "Did you bring them? Did you bring them?"

Maggie, grinning like she was awarding her favorite puppy a massive treat, held out the gigantic tray of chocolate chip walnut cookies she'd made just for Kara and wrapped in red plastic wrap with green ribbon. Kara made short work of the wrapping, barely noticing it, but Maggie just laughed and shook her head as Kara shoveled two of the cookies into her mouth at once.

"Mmmmm, ank oo!" She took an enormous gulp. "Alex, don't you ever do anything to make her go away and stop making me cookies!" And she all but galloped off into the apartment to announce and display – but certainly not to share – the arrival of Maggie's baking.

(Anticipating this, Maggie had made a separate couple of batches for everyone whose name was not Kara Danvers, and J'onn groaned gratefully when Alex slipped him and M'gann the extra, less decorative plate while Kara was occupied with stuffing her face with the other tray.)

Maggie greeted Mon El somewhat warily and was pleasantly surprised when James pulled her into a one-armed side hug in greeting before striding off to try and wrestle some of the cookies from Kara. By her side, Alex squeezed her hand, as though she felt Maggie's surprise and nervous happiness. As though she shared it.

Oblivious to all this, Mon El launched into an animated story about how Winn had taken off his shoes off earlier and yelped "like a small girl child" when he stepped on an errant ornament hook. Alex smacked Mon El upside the head as she walked away at that comment, and Winn stuck his tongue out before following her; Maggie was left to figure out how to explain the depth of the strange white boy's misogyny to him.

M'gann, ever with the sharp eyes of a bartender for a woman in distress, saved her, feigning that she needed help from a strong police officer with opening a difficult bottle of rum.

"It's nice to see you so happy," M'gann commented softly after a few long moments of watching Maggie watch Alex, doubled over with laughter with Kara over an old ornament they had just unearthed from one of the many Christmas boxes popped open throughout the apartment. Alex had looked up from her laughing fit and smiled radiantly at Maggie, who had stood a little straighter at having those eyes seek hers across a room like that.

"Nice to _be_ this happy, you know?" M'gann smiled indulgently and Maggie nudged into her with her shoulder. "Guess you know the feeling, huh?"

She nodded her head toward J'onn, who was mocking James mercilessly for allowing Kara to yank a Santa hat down around his ears.

M'gann followed her gaze and chuckled to herself. "Man needs to be brought down a peg, hm?" she asked Maggie, who spotted a pair of reindeer antlers with attached jingle bells on the table near them. Grinning wickedly, she offered them to M'gann, who smiled broadly and stole behind J'onn, stealthily planting the antlers on his head with just enough time for James to snap a perfect photograph of J'onn's bemused look of horror, holding M'gann while she laughed into his chest.

Maggie watched all of this with joy, with laughter, with extreme contentment. But she was, somehow, still somewhat removed from it, from these people who mostly had so much history together.

She hadn't exactly been _surprised_ to get an invite from Alex, but, well, she'd be lying if she said there hadn't been _something_ surprising about it.

She loved Alex – _loved_ her, and she was planning on telling her that at some point soon, because life is short and you should tell the girls you love that you love them – but tonight, under this complex web of mistletoe and rainbow lights, she was the new one.

Not just new to the Superfriends. Not just new to the idea that Alex's baby sister was Supergirl. Not just new to working with the DEO. Not just Alex's new girlfriend.

Alex's _first_ girlfriend.

M'gann was new, too, to all of this. But she and J'onn had some kind of indescribable bond, last of their kind and all. They were almost family by default, and J'onn's girls had clearly accepted her with completely open arms.

Speaking of open arms, she slept in Alex's open arms almost every night now, and if Kara's reaction to her cookies was any indication, the superhero accepted her pretty well.

But still.

She was clearly surrounded by family, but she wasn't quite sure if she was _part_ of it, exactly. Not yet.

So she dug one hand into her pocket and kept one firm around her bottle of beer, raising it toward her girlfriend's little sister amiably when Kara shouted across the room to ask everyone if she should turn up NSYNC's Home for Christmas album.

James, J'onn, and Alex all groaned and M'gann chuckled softly, but Winn? Winn started breaking out terrible white boy dance moves from the late 90s and Maggie busted out laughing. Winn caught her eye and waggled his eyebrows and finger at her, beckoning her forward.

Maggie just laughed harder, but then James and Alex were pushing her and Kara was bouncing up and down across the room, tinsel in her hand, watching, calling "Go Maggie!", and Maggie was nothing if not a sucker for making Alex's kid sister smile.

So she shoved her beer into Alex's hands and let Winn pull her forward and moved in time with him as he sang along with the old CD in a surprisingly smooth voice.

"Bells are ringing,

It's time to scream and shout

And everybody's playing 'cause school's out"

"You hear that, J'onn? No work!" he interrupted himself, and Maggie took the opportunity to lift his hand above his head and twirl him. He went along with the movement with surprising grace and Maggie saw Kara jumping up and down, clapping, out of the corner of her eye.

"She can keep Mr. Schott occupied and out of trouble, Danvers. She's a keeper," J'onn said behind her, and Maggie thought that maybe she was starting to belong here.

Best time of year for the family, indeed.


	2. Chapter 2

_Pre-2x08. Alex and Maggie are being "just friends", and Susan Vasquez recruits Winn, Supergirl, and an aggressive amount of mistletoe to remedy the situation._

Susan Vasquez wasn't that much for spoken conversation.

Instead, she talked with her actions, with short phrases, with massive gestures that you missed if you blinked.

Like addressing Kara and Alex and Lucy as "ma'ams." She loved being able to do that.

Like saving all their lives, every day, with the calmness of her calculations and the collectedness of her communication. Their military structure didn't allow her much by way of thanks – all in a day's work – and in those moments when it got to her, her team would notice. Alex or Lucy took her out for a drink, or J'onn brought her lunch. She loved those moments.

Like helping Kara rescue Alex and J'onn from Cadmus by letting her get the intel she needed. She'd loved listening to the chaos as reports started trickling in that something was amiss, that the prisoners, her friends, her team, her family, were getting away.

Susan Vasquez spoke through her actions.

So come Christmas, she had a plan.

Alex Danvers wasn't in the closet – not anymore – and anyone who heard her open her mouth for long enough to say the word "Maggie" could tell she was heels over head in love.

And it was clear as day that Maggie liked – she'd even say loved – Alex back.

So Susan couldn't figure out for the life of her why they weren't together yet.

Winn had muttered something about them just being friends, them being in different places. Susan glanced over at the way Maggie – who'd been granted access to the DEO more and more frequently these days – stared at Alex while she bent over a computer, muttering about gamma rays to herself. She knew longing when she saw it.

Just friends, indeed.

Winn knocked his shoulder into her gently. "You're into this Maggie girl, too? Because you're staring at her almost as much as Alex is."

Susan rolled her eyes and restrained from knocking Winn on the back of the head: the was Alex's job. "No, I'm not – can you get the Director and Agent Danvers out of here this afternoon? I only need a couple of hours, a trip to the Christmas pop-up by the waterfront, and one of those tactical drones you've been working on in your down time."

Winn blinked and didn't know what to inquire about first: the Christmas pop-up, or the tactical drones.

He also wasn't sure which one scared him more.

But working at the DEO, he was learning what Barry Allen had learned within fifty seconds of interacting with Cat Grant: sometimes speaking was not the right choice.

He made a sort of strangled noise in his throat and nodded, already coming up with a credible wild goose chase to send J'onn and Alex out on.

An hour later, the deed was done – Alex and J'onn had brought Maggie and some other agents to a warehouse on the far side of the city in search of a series of false leads Winn had orchestrated carefully.

And Susan had slipped out of the DEO empty-handed and returned with a rather large, rather lumpy sack slung over her back. She'd placed it next to her chair in the command center and gotten back to work like nothing had happened.

Winn couldn't take it. Within minutes, he was bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet next to Susan's seat, waiting to learn what was in the sack, why he had to get rid of J'onn and Alex.

She kept a straight face, ignoring him and continuing her programming, for as long as she could without laughing.

"Yes, Mr. Schott?" she finally asked in an uncanny imitation of J'onn.

"Well, it – I – you sent J'onn and Alex away, and then that sack, and – "

A swooshing of the air around them both sent Winn's tie nearly smacking Susan's face.

"Hi Supergirl," they both greeted, and Kara, hands on hips, went right to business.

"What is it, Agent Vasquez? Is my sister okay?" She looked around for Alex, but found no sign of her.

"It's almost Christmas, Supergirl," Susan told her simply, and Kara's brow furrowed like that was the last thing she'd ever expected to hear. And… it was.

"Uhhh," she spluttered.

Susan stood up. "Your sister," she said softly. "And Maggie Sawyer." She paused, and Supergirl started nodding slowly while Winn just looked between them blinking rapidly. "Agree?"

"What do you have in mind?"

"Mr. Schott, do you have those tactical drones?"

Winn nodded slowly, shuffling toward a compartment under his desk to haul out three mini drones with tactile grips and laser guns.

Susan dragged the bag up and into her lap. Supergirl gasped and clapped her hands excitedly when Susan opened it with a flourish.

" _Yes!_ " Supergirl cried, and Winn came rushing back over. Susan closed the bag before he could see.

"Mr. Schott, please program the drones to hang these securely at every doorway, above every control panel, every computer and especially in every lab. Supergirl will help them. The job gets top priority, and needs to be completed before the Director gets back to base with Agent Danvers."

Supergirl nodded overenthusiastically in agreement.

"Um, okay, but uh… what exactly are they hanging?"

Susan just turned back to her work with a mysterious smile on her face, knowing exactly what was going to happen next.

Sure enough, the sack burst open again as Kara exclaimed loudly, " _Mistletoe!_ "

* * *

Alex didn't notice at first. She was too busy arguing with Maggie about the effectiveness of differential versus rate-zonal centrifugation when pressed for time, but J'onn noticed immediately.

Largely because he was rolling his eyes at the girls – at _his_ girl, at how _happy_ she was, even though he saw her pining and didn't know quite how to bring it up with her – and as his eyes shifted upwards, he noticed the tiny green sprig with a bright red ribbon tied around it, affixed to the ceiling.

He stepped out of the way automatically – he'd been on this strange planet long enough – and knew immediately why they had turned up no real evidence at the warehouse.

He just wasn't sure if he should scold Mr. Schott or Supergirl first. Still, he said nothing, just walked with Alex and Maggie back to the control room, eyes sweeping the room at the dozens of agents staring at the two oblivious women.

Maggie noticed something was amiss first.

She still didn't quite feel at home at the DEO – certainly not the way Alex did – because she certainly trusted Alex with her life, and by default of her trust in Alex, she trusted J'onn and Supergirl, but they weren't her own superiors. She had her own orders to follow, and while she'd already destroyed many rules for the sake of working with Alex and the DEO – even being here right now, working with an extra legal organization, could cost her her shield – she was always acutely aware of the risk of being here.

The way everyone knew each other, but still looked at her as "Alex's cop friend."

And they were sure looking, now.

Was those agents peeking out of that lab even… snickering?

Her back went ramrod straight and she almost stopped walking. Surely the DEO wasn't stupid enough to employ such blatantly homophobic… nope. No. Nope.

She followed their gaze and her eyes found not one, not two, not three, but at least six different green sprigs with red ribbons within vision, all arranged on ceilings, on tops of doorways, above crucial equipment.

Mistletoe.

Mistletoe that certainly wasn't there just a couple hours before.

Her eyes shifted to J'onn's, as Alex was still nerding out, still oblivious to the Chrismification that someone had gotten up to while the Director'd been out. J'onn just arched an eyebrow at her, and she wondered if that meant he would kill her if he tried anything with his daughter or if he was encouraging her to go for it.

Her mouth was dry and suddenly she realized that Alex was waiting for a witty retort.

They'd reached the control room by now, and they must have passed directly under four different sprigs of mistletoe by now, but if one of the parties didn't notice, it didn't count, right?

"See? Don't even have a response. Because I'm right, Sawyer," she teased smugly, and shifted so she'd be standing right in Maggie's space.

Glancing up – and keenly aware that Winn was _not_ looking at his computer, and that Kara was _not_ staring over his shoulder at whatever he was _not_ working on, and that Agent Vasquez did _not_ usually sit facing this side of the room – Maggie gulped and stepped back from Alex.

Panic – deep, acidic, horrible panic – swept through Alex's stomach at the sight of Maggie stepping back from her, at the sight of her pulling away. _Again._

What had she done this time? She thought Maggie liked that she was a nerd, she thought Maggie liked _her._ Hadn't she said she didn't want to imagine her life without Alex in it? So why was she taking a full on step back suddenly, and at her job, god, no less?

All of that fear, all of that panic, flitted across her eyes in the flicker of a moment, and Maggie saw it all.

"No, Alex," Maggie said softly, softly, but she didn't step forward, didn't move to console her with her body like she so, so, so deeply wanted to.

Somewhere, somehow, Winn or Susan – hell, maybe even Supergirl, Maggie couldn't tell – had rigged up the Glee version of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" (at least it felt somewhat less violent in this version) and the tune started floating softly through the control room.

Maggie didn't know whether she wanted to kill them all or thank them on bended knee. Alex's next move would determine that, probably.

Maggie pointed upward, gently, screwing up her face into an apologetic smile as she did so.

Alex furrowed her brow and reluctantly followed the path of Maggie's finger. It took her a moment of staring up at the dangling mistletoe to process what the hell was happening. To process the soft, scared look in Maggie's eyes. The way she gulped and licked her lips, the way her gaze was wide and open, no trace of her typical, flirtatious sarcasm now that Alex had _finally_ noticed the mistletoe above them.

Supergirl backhanded Susan in the shoulder excitedly, repeatedly, as they watched the scene unfolding between them, and Susan swatted her away, but her eyes gave her away.

"That kiss was so bad you wouldn't even replay it for the sake of Christmas?" Alex asked softly, so softly that Supergirl was the only one aside from Maggie who heard.

Supergirl's heart broke for Alex, remembering her tears, her humiliation, that night, how hard, how painstaking, it had been to build her up again.

Maggie's heart broke for Alex, for how stupid she had been, for how close she had come to losing her, for how Alex didn't understand that she was just scared, terrified, petrified, but it was Christmastime and on Christmas, you tell the truth.

"Alex, I replay that kiss every minute of every day." She stepped forward, and Alex's eyes flew wider than Maggie had ever seen them.

The entire DEO took a collective breath – J'onn had never seen so many agents poking their heads into the control room, not even when there was that showdown between Lucy Lane and her father – and Maggie took the deepest breath of all.

"Alex, it's Christmas time, and there's mistletoe, and when it's Christmas and there's mistletoe, you… you kiss the girls you want to kiss. And I just… I want to kiss you. I just – "

And she remembered that her lips had been soft but _damn_ not that soft, and that she'd tasted like beer but now it was more like coffee and mint, and this time _her_ hands were on _Alex's_ cheeks and Alex was frozen but then she was melting and Winn was whooping and Supergirl was clapping and Maggie was melting right back into Alex, and then there was her tongue flitting across Alex's bottom lip and Alex's tongue was responding in kind and Alex was moaning and Maggie was backing them both into the nearest computer terminal and J'onn was clearing his throat and now Maggie was absolutely certain that he approved because she wasn't dead yet but she also knew she was about to get the most intense shovel talk ever from Alex's space dad and she had never looked forward to any awkward conversation that much because Alex had opened her eyes and was smiling at her with _that_ smile and looking up, pointing up, because there was yet _another_ cutting of mistletoe directly above where Maggie had pushed them and Alex was shrugging and apologizing to J'onn, telling him, "Sorry sir, I _have_ to kiss her again, we can't afford to go out into the field with all that bad luck sticking to us," and Maggie had never been kissed _like that_ and neither had Alex and _god_ could they just walk around with mistletoe dotting the ceiling forever because Christmas season had never, ever tasted so good.

J'onn gave up when the cheers really erupted from the dozens of agents looking on, and Susan composed her face into a carefully feigned innocence as he strolled over to her seat.

He turned his back to the other onlookers, clapped her on the shoulder, and winked.

"Quite in the holiday spirit, I see."

"Yes, sir."

A pause. Alex's hands were buried in Maggie's hair, now, and J'onn could swear he saw a tear trickle down both of their faces.

"Nice work, Agent Vasquez. Very nice work indeed."


	3. Chapter 3

Alex Danvers was not one to turn down a challenge.

Even when the challenge came in the form of a very romantic date idea from her very romantic girlfriend.

"I didn't even know National City _had_ an ice skating rink," was the first thing she'd spluttered when Maggie had asked her off hand if she'd like to go skating with her on Holiday Music Night.

The second thing she'd said had been "I'd love to go, babe," because she knew by now that Maggie's off-handed way of asking things often meant that something was really, really important to her and she was embarrassed, or scared, or scarred, into assuming that the other person would find it stupid.

And she was happy to go, happy to learn why ice skating was so important to Maggie; happy just that Maggie wanted to _do_ things with her, still in awe that Maggie _liked_ her enough to want to do things with her. Date her. Kiss her. Ice skate… with her.

Which led to the challenge.

Because Alex Danvers had never been ice skating.

Even if she'd known National City had a rink, she probably wouldn't have ever gone on her own. Unless Kara pouted about it, which she never had. But Maggie asking off-handedly and Kara pouting were about the only things that could get her to go without grumbling, because Alex Danvers liked her feet on solid ground, thank you very much.

But Maggie apparently had her own skates and apparently there _was_ a place she went to other than the bar after work, so the next night Alex found herself wearing the gloves Maggie had sternly instructed her to wear – "Taking a spill on frozen ground is deeply unpleasant with bare hands, even for hardass DEO agents, Danvers" – but with a chip on her shoulder.

"Who's gonna take a spill? Pfft, come on. I'm _combat trained_ , Maggie, I'm not gonna _fall_ doing something _children_ do."

Maggie had just chuckled and told her to wear a scarf, too.

She was nervous, excited, and determined all at once as she pulled up on her Ducati. Her heart melted and leaped all at once when she scanned the area and saw her girlfriend near the rink's entrance. Even though Maggie was standing still, Alex could feel the excitement rolling off her; even though she was leaning, motionless, thumbs dipped into her pockets, gym bag slung over her shoulder, her right knee bent so her foot was resting against the wall, Alex sensed the buzz of excitement in her, and it sent her flying.

Maggie was staring, the ghost of a grin on her face, at the pavement in front of her, and Alex took her time taking in the sight. Not only her stance, which was, well, _hot_ , but also the utter adorableness of the red beanie Maggie had pulled down around her ears, somehow making her look gayer than she always already did. And the leather gloves she was wearing? Alex swallowed to control herself. She secured her bike and walked up to Maggie slowly, slowly, relishing the opportunity to observe the woman she loved in her moments of solitude.

Alex wondered what she was thinking about, what memory, what fantasy, was bringing that small tilt upward to her perfect lips.

"Hey, pretty lady," Alex greeted softly when she was a foot or two away from her girlfriend. Maggie's entire being lit up, from quietly contemplative to ecstatically happy in the milliseconds it took for her to identify Alex's voice, the shadow she cast over her, the warmth of her body coming into her space.

" _Alex_ ," she said by way of greeting, and that was all she needed to say. It stood for, 'I missed you. It was a long day at work and I'm so glad I had this to look forward to so I could get through it. It means so much that you wanted to do this with me, even though this ice skating stuff is new for you. You look beautiful. It's so good to see you.'

All in the emotion Maggie put into the two short, sweet syllables of Alex's name.

Alex beamed. "You were thinking pretty hard about something there."

Maggie nodded and her smile shifted slightly from ecstatic to perfectly content and deeply thoughtful.

"My dad used to take my ice skating almost every weekend, every winter, when I was a kid. It was like… our thing. I was just thinking about it, you know? About him. We had a pond that would freeze over. I fell in one year, you know. Almost lost hearing in my left ear. He saved me." She stood on her tiptoes to kiss away the look of horror on Alex's face. "I'm fine, babe. And you can't fall into an indoor rink." She looped her arm through Alex's and they headed for the entrance of the rink, stopping to let three extremely eager children in Santa hats and reindeer antlers through the door ahead of their parents.

"Anyway, I was pretty stoked when I found out they have a rink here. Makes me feel a little closer to home, especially around Christmas, you know?"

Alex nodded, loving nothing more than hearing Maggie's stories, and kissed her forehead as they walked into the utter holiday explosion that was the rink. Nearly at the level of Kara's apartment in terms of the utter explosion of holiday decorations, Mariah Carey blasted into their ears as soon as they were through the interior doors.

Alex had expected Maggie to send her off on her own to figure out what to do: it looked a little bit like a bowling alley set up, with different lines for food, admission tickets, to rent and return skates.

She should have known better.

Because Maggie immediately started bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet as "All I Want for Christmas is You" washed over them, and she tugged Alex – somehow in time to the music – toward the skate rental line. Alex smiled when she realized that Maggie was absently singing along with the song to herself.

"Nerd."

Maggie's smile only brightened as the sound of metal in ice – a more pleasant sound than Alex would have expected – coated their ears from the rink, off to the left side.

"Takes one to know one, Danvers."

Alex's smile brightened then, too.

"Okay, so we'll get you your skates here – "

"We don't need admission?" Alex asked.

Maggie winked up at her. "I've got a frequent flyer pass."

Alex leaned down so their mouths were a mere breath from each other, as children clomping in ungainly fashions in their skates on the padded ground raced their parents around the two of them, oblivious.

"Do you now?"

Maggie went still and her eyes fluttered closed slightly.

"Mmmmmhm!" she hummed in sing song, by way of reminding her that, helping keep the cover of one of the alien employees so he wouldn't be targeted for harassment or not, she'd probably be asked to leave if she tried to rip off her girlfriend's clothes right then and there on the skate rental line.

"Detective Sawyer!" the college aged boy working the rentals called, an eager glow on his fae. Maggie backed out of the spell that was proximity to Alex Danvers and laughed as the boy jammed a Santa hat on his head while waving the couple – how they go to be next in line neither would ever know – over to the desk.

"How goes it, Eli _á_ n?" Maggie called as she locked her fingers with Alex's and strolled forward, dimples out in full force.

"Good as ever," he returned as he engaged Maggie in the most complex handshake Alex had seen since Winn and James got drunk that night at the bar.

"A pair of 10s for my lady here, please," Maggie told him when their handshake ended in an over-the-counter hug that had Maggie practically jumping to be able to reach his Eli _án's shoulder._

 _"_ _So you must be the famous Alex Danvers!" the boy exclaimed, and Alex flushed, spluttered, and reddened._

 _"_ _Elián," Maggie muttered through gritted teeth, but her smile told him she was pleased, and the way Alex shook his hand warmly told her that she wasn't the only one._

 _"_ _So how do you two know each other?" Alex asked, always marveling at how many people Maggie seemed to know, but how few she seemed to really let in._

 _Elián held up a finger and scampered away to get Alex's skates. When he came back and put them on the counter, he leaned over to Alex's ear and whispered conspiratorially, "She helped me with some… ah…_ _immigration_ _issues, if you know what I mean."_

 _He finished off with a broad wink that let Alex see the hint of maroon rimming his pupils, and – she'd changed so much since that first night she reached for her gun in the alien bar – she nodded with understanding and winked right back at him._

 _Maggie's heart glowed, and she tugged down Elián's Santa hat playfully as they thanked him and went to pick their way through teenage couples, exhausted parents, and exhilarated kids to find a bench to put on their skates._

"He's a good kid, Eli _án," Maggie said as she plopped down next to Alex and bent to zip open her gym bag. A sleek pair of black skates – so unlike the scuffed, gray rented pair Alex had – accompanied a jump rope and boxing gloves._

 _"_ _Planning to box on the rink?" Alex teased._

 _Maggie shrugged as her body bounced to the tune of "Jingle Bells." "Didn't have time to dump my regular gym stuff, so I just shoved it all in the same bag."_

 _Alex gulped at the idea of Maggie going at a heavy bag and Maggie licked her lips, knowing exactly what Alex was thinking and loving it._

 _"_ _Such dirty thoughts amongst such innocent children," she chided in a low voice, and Alex pffted._

 _Maggie tugged on her skates with ease and electricity jumped through their fingers when she leaned over to show Alex how to lace hers up around the back and make sure they were as snug as possible._

 _Alex took advantage to brush the hair falling on Maggie's neck to kiss the exposed skin between her shoulder and neck. Maggie shivered and shifted so she could look Alex in the eyes. "Ready to go?"_

 _It had been cute until then. Cute, and a little over Christmasy, but Maggie was happy, and Alex was in stable shoes._

 _And now she had to stand on metallic tight ropes, and the fact that there were children clomping around in their own skates like it was nothing made it even worse._

 _But Maggie was standing already, hands outstretched to Alex, hips swinging slightly as "Rockin Around the Christmas Tree" started playing, her hair slightly askew under that adorable hat and a glow already in her face from the thrill of it all._

 _So Alex reminded herself that she fought aliens for a living and could for sure defeat a simple task like ice skating, and stood._

 _She'd told herself she'd taken Maggie's hands just because she liked touching her –_ _loved_ _touching her – not because she actually needed the help._

 _She'd told herself that. But it was a lie._

 _She swayed the moment she stood up, and Maggie arched an eyebrow and pursed her lips but said nothing other than, "Takes some getting used to."_

 _Alex scowled down at her unsteadily, and Maggie's eyes glistened this time. "You're better than me at pool."_

 _"_ _Who said I won't be good at this?" Alex pffted. She wobbled again as she took a step, and Maggie bit her lip but kept silent, taking Alex's hand and helping her hobble to the entrance to the ice rink._

 _"_ _Okay, it's gonna feel really scary at first. But I won't let you fall, mmkay?"_

 _If anyone else had said that to Alex, she might have decked them. She might have raged that she didn't need any help, that she was Alex Danvers and was afraid of nothing and no one, certainly not an ice rink that children were currently speeding around in Santa hats and reindeer antlers._

 _But Maggie? Maggie managed, somehow, to make Alex feel loved, not inadequate; to make her feel protected, not stupid; to make her feel perfect, not insufficient._

 _So she followed Maggie onto the ice, not forgetting to marvel at her girlfriend, who casually glided onto the ice backwards, not bothering to get her own bearings as she held both of Alex's hands in her own while Alex awkwardly stepped out onto the ice._

 _And promptly lost her footing._

 _But, true to her word, Maggie didn't let her fall._

 _Maybe it was the jump rope and boxing gloves in her gym bag, or maybe it was something in her physical cop training; or maybe it was sheer determination never to break her word to Alex, but – size difference notwithstanding – she stabilized her own skates in the ice and held Alex up, holding her hands and her eyes with her own._

 _Alex's legs steadied after a moment, and Maggie smiled so warmly at her it was a wonder the entire rink didn't melt._

 _"_ _All good?"_

 _Alex didn't trust herself to nod, so she just tried to take another step._

 _"_ _Good," Maggie said, and again, Alex felt cared for, not condescended, and she wondered how in the hell Maggie did that when no one else had ever managed to before._

 _"_ _Try not to let your ankles flare out, and use the ice to your advantage: it'll help you move forward, just let it take you there."_

 _Still skating backwards, still waiting for Alex to gather her own confidence and bearings and speed, Maggie bit her lip and watched the utter concentration on her girlfriend's face._

 _"_ _Where Are You Christmas?" played across the rink, and Maggie knew exactly where it had gone, and exactly where it could be found: in Alex's eyes when she took one stride, then two, then three, unsteady at first, grasping desperately at Maggie's hands at first, until she got her own ungainly rhythm and started really moving on her own._

 _Maggie's dimples came out in full force at the exhilaration in Alex's eyes, and she shifted to skate side-by-side with Alex. Their hands fit together perfectly, and for a long while, neither of them spoke._

 _Through "Do You Hear What I Hear?", Maggie sang a little bit under her breath, but still, neither of them spoke; through "Baby, It's Cold Outside," they flirt lip-synced, and laughed so hard Alex almost sent them both tumbling; and through "Merry New York Christmas," they rested on the wall for Alex's sake, still holding hands and watching children speed by with their parents, teenagers amble by on their first dates, adults speed by with ice clinging to their gloves._

 _"_ _Let me watch you," Alex told Maggie after they skated – Alex slowly building her own rhythm – through a few more laps, holding hands, always holding hands, around the rink._

 _"_ _Yeah?" Maggie asked._

 _Alex nodded eagerly and let herself slam to a gentle stop against the wall after failing to brake successfully._

 _Maggie leaned up to give her a quick kiss, which made Alex's insides glow, and took off with backwards, neatly glancing over her shoulder to avoid bumping into any other skaters. With a mischievous raise of her eyebrows, she finally turned and let herself gather full speed._

 _The sight of her moving with such grace, such speed, weaving without difficulty, without error, through skater after skater – and being careful, always, to do so in such a way that it didn't throw them off their own game – took Alex's breath away. She was all the way around the rink and rounding the bend toward where Alex rested, skating backwards, before Alex would have even gotten to the first bend._

 _"_ _Liked that?" Maggie asked eagerly._

 _"_ _You're amazing," Alex said, pulling her in for a kiss. Maggie shivered with excitement, and Alex tugged them both, eager to learn more, eager to brake better, inspired rather than intimidated by Maggie's skill. But Maggie pulled her back, pulled her down, pulled her deeper into another kiss, her tongue slipping into Alex's mouth as "Silent Night" calmed the rink around them._

 _"_ _Awwwww!" a few passing teenage girls squealed, and Alex broke the kiss with a broad grin and very red face._

"Get a room, Danvers!"

She and Maggie both jumped, and Maggie had to grab at Alex's waist to keep her steady. They both turned and saw Winn, followed by Kara and James, slipping out onto the ice.

"Hey guys!" Maggie waved good-naturedly. "Babe, did you – "

" _No,_ I didn't invite them! I didn't even tell them where I was – oh my god, they pinged my phone. I'll kill them, I'll kill all of them. _Winn_!"

Winn had been approaching, but now he skated backwards with infuriating grace, out of Alex's flailing grasp.

Maggie steadied her hands on Alex's forearms and grinned. "The hell would you have done if her phone was in my bed, Schott?" she called.

Alex blushed and Maggie smirked and Kara groaned and James slammed to the ice with laughter and Winn shrugged.

"Would've brought the party to you there then!"

"Winn – " Kara tried to reconcile, but the shit-eating grin tugging at her face gave her away.

"Oh c'mon, it's all Christmas music, all night! You mean to tell me this date wouldn't be better as a party?" James's voice was rich and happy, and it almost melted Alex's will. _Almost._

"I can tell you a lot of things that would be better – "

"Alex, babe, hey. Let's have fun." Maggie kissed her gloved hand as a deeply bemused Kara tugged James to his feet. He chuckled as he brushed ice off his pants. "Maggie, haven't you figured it out by now? This _is_ Alex having fun."

That earned such a laugh from Kara that she brought James back down to the ice along with her, and Alex spurted over to her to make sure she was alright.

"The ice isn't kryptonite, Alex, I'm fine," Kara teased, but pulled her sister down into a sloppy, icy hug. Alex yelped and Maggie and Winn flinched as Maggie tugged James away from Kara and Alex, who was mercilessly tickling a squealing Kara to the tune of "Underneath the Tree."

"Hey, hey, hey, can we be that obnoxious group of adults who all hold hands in one big icy link that no one can pass through?"

Three nos and only one yes rang out, but, as Maggie pulled both Kara and Alex to their feet, somehow Kara and Winn's desires won out.

James took Winn's hand, and Alex took the other, with a crushing grip and a warning look that both terrified and exhilarated the little brother she never had. Maggie took Alex's other hand and called "Little Danvers, over here!" to a still struggling Kara.

Within a few strides, Maggie and Winn were both flat on the floor, having taken the fall themselves so the rest of the chain would stay up.

"Go on without us!" Winn called, and Maggie gasped for air as Alex, stabilized by James, tugged her to her feet as "Grown Up Christmas List" played in the background.

Looking around at the Superfriends around her – at the way Kara included her in their hot chocolate order without needing to be asked; the way James took impromptu pictures of her and Alex skating hand in hand "so you can have a photo for your first ornament together"; the way Winn whispered to Alex and she smacked him upside the head while they both winked at Maggie, telling her in their own ways that Winn was congratulating her on having such a keeper; the way Alex trusted her to hold her up, the way they melted into each other's arms and stole kisses each time Alex was steady enough on her own feet – Maggie knew she had everything on her grown up Christmas list, after all.


	4. Chapter 4

_**In which Alex enlists James to help her Christmas shop for Maggie; and Maggie enlists Kara to help her Christmas shop for Alex. The four wind up running into each other at the National City Holiday Market, and extreme fluff ensues.**_

* * *

"James. _James Olsen_. Such a nice name. You know it wouldn't occur to me right away why you'd want to adopt _another name_ when _James Olsen_ is such a nice one, but hey, I respect you and your life choices."

A shiver ran down James's spine: he wasn't _actually_ afraid of Alex. They'd bonded a lot over the last year, especially since the day Kara was attacked by the Black Mercy and Alex had trusted him to let her die trying to save Kara. Because she knew that _he_ knew how much Kara meant to her. To them both. That kind of love for the same person? It can bring people together. And it had.

But damned if Alex wasn't going to milk knowing James's Guardian secret for all it was worth until he told Kara.

"What do you want, Alex?" A smile tugged on the corner of his lips because he could see, even when she was trying to be low-key threatening, how happy she was now. Since coming out. Since Maggie.

Alex mock glared at him and sighed when he didn't rise to the bait. She battled his eyes with hers for a moment before tossing her hands back, palms out. "I need to get Maggie a Christmas gift and I've never gotten a Christmas gift for a _girlfriend_ before, so I figured, you know, you could help."

To his deep, deep credit, James didn't laugh. He didn't mock her and he didn't flinch. He did, however, sit back on Cat Grant's old desk and furrow his brow at her. "You're asking me, not Winn?"

"Lucy had a lot of good things to say about your thoughtfulness. And Winn would never let me live down asking for his… _help._ "

He smiled slightly, fondly, thoughts on Lucy, and nodded. He glanced at his watch and sighed.

"You free right now? I can take an early lunch."

Alex groaned, relieved. "Ugh, you are the _best_."

* * *

Kara's brow was furrowed, squinting under her glasses at desk she was standing at, bent over a messy pile of police reports and hastily scrawled notes: Snapper still hadn't allowed her a chair, but he was giving her multiple assignments at once now. Superhuman endurance or not, she was considering asking for a chair instead of a holiday bonus.

"Hey, Little Danvers!"

Kara looked up and grinned. "Hi Maggie."

Her sister's girlfriend took a cursory glance at the papers scattered on Kara's desk and pushed her leather jacket aside to reveal her badge. "You know if you need an inside source on the missing Bravak case, I hear tell there's a brilliant NCPD science division detective floating around in your inner circle."

Kara laughed and adjusted her glasses. "That'd be great! I didn't want to ask, you know, take advantage of your undying love for my sister and all."

Maggie put her left hand to her chin, just under her lips, and shuffled her feet a bit. "Yeah, there's the thing, Little Danvers. I… I don't want to take advantage of _your_ undying love for your sister, but I was wondering if you'd maybe want to help me. Pick her out the perfect Christmas gift."

Kara's eyebrows raised, and Maggie took it as disapproval, rambling on, pacing slightly around Kara's desk now. "It's not that I'm trying to get out of being thoughtful about it myself. It's just, you know her better, obviously, and I want to find the _perfect_ thing because I feel like she's not too into the Christmas thing, you know, and I want to make sure she – "

She stopped when Kara's hands braced her shoulders, and she looked up into piercing blue eyes. "Of _course_ I'll go Christmas shopping for Alex with you. It'll be fun! And you can give me all your super secret, on-the-record intel for my article on the way."

Maggie chuckled in equal parts amusement and relief and followed an overeager Kara Danvers out the door.

* * *

James took her to the National City Holiday Market; a hodgepodge of food stands, antique stands, novelty items, and a whole host of unique things you couldn't find anywhere else.

They'd found the perfect hand-crafted thermal gloves for J'onn – who despite the whole Martian thing, tended to run very cold, and they'd noticed him rubbing his hands together a lot as the weather got chillier – and they'd stumbled on the perfect set of gag gifts for Kara and Winn.

Alex even stole away from James for a few minutes – her DEO training in action – to buy him an old Nikon film camera, still in working order, that caught her eye.

But they could find nothing for Maggie.

James had jokingly gestured his hand through a rack of old leather jackets, and Alex had, in a rare moment of sexual boldness when Maggie wasn't around, waggled her eyebrows suggestively at James, pointing at an old-style series of nude women photographs.

"I mean, she might want them if they were of you," James teased, and had to resist photographing her with how red and pleased she got.

And then he wondered. Why resist?

He slipped his Canon out of his jacket pocket – it wasn't the most high quality, with no real zoom lens, but it was good enough to snap photos for CatCo – and, making sure Alex's back was turned, started snapping.

He photographed her lopsided, faraway smile when she reached out to touch an old NCPD badge on one of the tables, surely thinking of Maggie.

He photographed her when she sipped on the hot apple cider she'd insisted on buying for them both, her eyes fluttered closed in relief at its warmth.

He photographed her when she bent over, hands resting on her thighs, to debate whether Santa was the Head Elf or just a really old human with a small child who'd run headlong into her in his excitement at seeing the North Pole display set up behind her.

He photographed her as she held a painting of the National City Bridge in her hands, head tilted – just like Maggie's – and tongue sticking out slightly, undoubtedly imagining Maggie's response to it.

He photographed her when she was in a crouch, combing through old trinkets and newspapers in a box on the floor, her hands – so lethal in other contexts – gentle as she caressed all that history.

He photographed her when he called her name and she turned to him, head over her shoulder, looking back expectantly, happily, eyes glowing in the Christmas lights strung around the stand behind him.

"What the hell, Olsen?" she asked, finally snapping out of her singular focus on finding Maggie a gift to notice his camera.

He held the device out of her reaching grasp and held up a finger.

"Whoa whoa whoa. Just – just look at them, Alex. I'll delete any of them, all of them, if you don't like them. But I uh… I have an idea for what you can give Maggie."

* * *

Maggie suggested the National City Holiday Market, because she wanted to find Alex something as unique, as special, as she was. Kara had squealed at her explanation, and Maggie swelled with pride that her idea had the approval of the girl who knew Alex best.

So she let herself be tugged along by a very frenetic Kara Danvers, all but skipping from one stand to the next. Maggie shelled out almost all her cash buying snacks for her girlfriend's little sister, and was rewarded by the contented sighs Kara made when she bit into one new holiday treat after the next.

When Kara's appetite was somewhat sated, she slipped into business mode.

"Okay, so. Gift for Alex. What kind of thing were you thinking? Unique, special, like you said. But anything more specific?"

Maggie let her hands run over the side of a stand selling hand-crafted jewelry and sighed. "Alex is so particular, so ordered, you know? I don't want to get her just anything, so I don't… I don't know, Little Danvers. I know she… I know she wears that ankle bracelet sometimes, but does she – does she like jewelry? She likes art galleries, I know, but would she want another painting in her apartment?"

Kara cut Maggie off before she listed everything she could think of.

"Alex likes _you_ , Maggie. She'll like whatever comes from your heart." She threaded her arm through Maggie's. "Let's just look around slowly and see what jumps out at you."

What jumped out at Maggie was a blue knit cap and scarf for James; a vintage denim jacket for her little cousin; a Christmas elf tie for Winn; and – bought stealthily between getting Kara extra donuts – a simple silver pen engraved with the phrase, "I write so I can free the world" for Kara.

Just as she was beginning to despair that she wouldn't find anything special enough for Alex, it caught her eye.

An old microscope – had to be from the late 60s, judging from the model and make – that, after cursory inspection and intent conversation with the vendor, she discovered still worked. She tested each lens and asked if it came with slides and covers. She asked if the bulbs were still good and she asked if he thought a massive science nerd would love it.

"Undoubtedly," the vendor assured her as Kara beamed in the background.

"Alex'll _love_ that," she squealed as Maggie carefully arranged it in its travel box.

Maggie shook her head. "I'm not just getting her the microscope. What I'm gonna do is, I'll go to the NCPD lab and prepare a bunch of different slides for her. Pictures of us, pictures of places I want to take her, pictures of her favorite astronomical phenomena, like a slideshow of everything we are so far and everything I want to be with her, but all microscopic, so you can only see through the microscope. Do you – do you think that's stupi – "

The wind was completely knocked out of her before she could even finish the word; Kara had wrapped her in a hug so tight she'd risked completely crushing the telescope, not to mention the other bags Maggie was hauling by now.

But none of that mattered. None of that mattered because Alex Danvers's kid sister was whispering in her ear that she was so grateful Alex found her, that she was so grateful she'd come into all their lives. And that it is a brilliant, perfect idea and that Alex would love it almost as much as she loves Maggie.

Maggie's heart wobbled and expanded; her eyes stung and her ribcage burned, but she didn't have the heart to tell Kara to loosen her grip.

"Kara? Maggie?"

They disentangled messily, and Kara all but dove in front of Maggie, in front of the bags she was carrying, the box with Alex's microscope in her hand.

"James! Alex!" Maggie almost groaned. She might not have known her as well as the rest of the Superfriends, but already she knew _that_ voice. The voice of trying to play it cool, nothing to see here, move right along, what, of course I'm not an alien, I'm from earth _just like you_ why would you ask me something like that.

"Hi guys! Maggie and I were just – we were – she's catching me up on a case! Yes!" Victory reigned in Kara's voice as she found a lie that wasn't completely untrue. "For my article. For Snapper! NCPD inside source!"

"Kara," James's voice was deeply amused. "It's okay if you and Maggie are out here Christmas shopping together. That's cool."

"Pfft, _no_ , we're not, and I'm definitely _not_ helping Maggie shop for Alex, that is definitely _not_ what's happening."

Maggie hung her head and looked up at Alex through squinty eyes.

But Alex was looking at her like she'd never seen something so beautiful as her girlfriend hanging out with her sister, and Maggie's insecurities melted.

"Well that's perfect, because I'm _certainly_ not helping Alex pick something out for Maggie! _Ow!_ "

Alex stepped toward Maggie after delivering a sound smack to James on the arm. "Hey," she said, and Kara melted away toward James.

He put his finger to his lips and took out his camera as Alex, shopping bags – now including the vintage photo frames she'd bought to hold James's pictures – dangling from her elbows, reached out to stroke the hair framing Maggie's face.

"You didn't have to get me anything, babe. You're my gift."

Maggie kissed her deeply, and James, with Kara squeeing encouragement in his ear, snapped still more photos.

"And you're mine, babygirl." Alex melted, and Maggie's fingertips on her waist were her only point of connection to the earth.

"But also, presents!" Alex laughed, and they intertwined in each other's arms, and James's camera didn't stop clicking.


	5. Chapter 5

_**The return of Lucy Lane, Cat Grant, and Sanvers bathroom sex during L Corp's holiday party. Need I… say more?**_

* * *

Alex had told her to wear something nice – it _was_ L Corp's fancy ass holiday party, after all – but _damn_ , did Maggie follow through.

A sleeveless black number, ending just at mid-thigh, hair done up so no one could miss the delicate twitches of her muscular back slipping into view from the completely backless dress.

Winn had to nudge Alex in the ribs to get her to close her jaw and prevent her from drooling.

"You… clean up nice," she choked out, reversing the first time that Maggie had assured her she wasn't all business. Maggie beamed.

"So do you, with the hair and the shoes and the – " She gestured up and down to Alex's entire body – a one-shouldered blue dress that clung to every curve perfectly, that stopped just shy of indecently short – and trailed off. Instead of the embarrassment that Alex would normally feel at someone reminded her of how she'd stammered, at a loss for words, she instead felt light, happy, cared for, listened to: Maggie had remembered exactly what she'd said. She'd cared. She'd listened. She'd remembered. And judging by the look on her face – the pure holiday giddiness mixed with dangerous desire – she'd found it much more than endearing.

Maggie paused a step or two in front of Alex, not knowing if she'd want to kiss in front of her friends yet. She did, and Maggie's pulse bounded as Alex brought her hand to her cheek and kissed her quickly, but with slightly parted lips that made Maggie's heart race and stop all at the same time.

"Hi," she whispered shyly when Alex pulled away, and Alex echoed the greeting back.

Maggie tore her eyes away from Alex – if she didn't stop looking at her now, she never would, and if she didn't stop looking, she wouldn't stop touching her, and if she didn't stop touching her, she'd have to arrest herself for public indecency – and glanced over at a widely grinning Winn and a politely eyes-averted James.

"Where's Kara?"

Winn choked and James thumped him on the back. "She's uh… pulling double duty tonight."

Maggie pursed her lips and leaned in to whisper to the boys. "So Lena invited Supergirl, too, huh?"

They spluttered and Alex, not hearing, arched an eyebrow: Maggie just winked broadly before lacing her fingers through Alex's and leading her into the fully decked out L Corp lobby.

* * *

The last time Maggie had led her into a high class party by the hand, Alex's emotional register was thrown completely out of whack.

It was this time, too. But knowing why – knowing that that feeling in her stomach was arousal, the shortness of breath was exhilaration, that swelling in her chest was something that was very easily becoming love – knowing why made all the difference.

She squeezed Maggie's hand tighter.

"All good, Danvers?"

They'd never gone to a formal function as a couple before, and she watched Alex's face carefully.

Alex paused as a few older white men looked hassled at their hand holding. She pulled Maggie closer. "All good, Sawyer."

"Agent Danvers!"

Alex spun as Lena Luthor extricated herself gracefully from a small crowd of L Corp investors.

"Lovely to see you again."

"Thanks for inviting me."

"Of course, of course. Any friend – or sister – of Kara's is a friend of mine."

"Lena, um – this is m – my girlfriend, Maggie."

Lena raised her eyebrows in pleasant surprise and took Maggie's hand – which was rapidly melting, along with the rest of her body, at hearing Alex introduce her as her girlfriend – warmly between both of hers.

"I've seen you before; you were with Agent Danvers keeping watch over the renaming of L Corp."

"Yes ma'am. NCPD Science Division."

Lena bit her lip slightly and her eyes flew rapidly between Alex and Maggie. "Quite a perfect match, then." Maggie beamed and Alex focused on regulating her heart rate somewhat: she couldn't ever remember feeling this giddy, this _proud_ , this… in love.

"You haven't seen your sister, have you, Agent Danvers? I'm afraid I've been looking all night and she – "

A slight rush of wind rustled behind Lena and Alex fought off a smirk.

"Hi Lena!"

Lena's face positively glowed as she turned. "Kara, so good of you to come, I was worried you wouldn't make it. You look… magnificent."

And she did. She was wearing a teal dress that dipped in an elegant, low V both in front and in back, her hair done up just so to expose her muscled back and emphasize the slight after-flying glow on her face.

She looked away and adjusted her glasses. "Well, you know, job of a reporter's never done, and um, you, you look amazing too! And hi Alex! Hi Maggie!"

Lena didn't so much as turn around to re-integrate the other women into the conversation. Instead, she took two glasses of champagne off the tray of a passing waiter and pressed one delicately into Kara's hands.

"I'm sorry you had a long day: you must be hungry, have you eaten? I made sure the catering staff made plenty of potstickers; I seem to remember you having a proclivity for them…

She led a wide-eyed, lottery-winning-looking Kara away and Alex chuckled. "Well she knows how to get in good with reporters named Kara Danvers."

Maggie arched an eyebrow and watched as Lena's hand hovered behind Kara's back, close yet so far away to touching her skin. Maggie wondered idly if Lena had ensured there was some mistletoe hanging along with all the sparkling white lights and tinsel-lined Christmas trees.

"Maggie." Alex's tentative voice pulled Maggie out of her thoughts and into her girlfriend's eyes. "Never mind."

Maggie took both Alex's hands into hers and swung a little bit. "No, babe, don't do that. What?"

Gazing down into those perfect brown eyes, so patient, so warm, Alex bit her lip and tried again. She nodded over Maggie's shoulder to where some of the guests had started to dance.

"Do you, um… would you…"

Maggie's smile lit up the room brighter than all the Christmas candles and tree decorations ever could. "Alex Danvers, are you asking me to dance with you?"

"Pfft, n – I – yes."

Maggie said nothing. She didn't need to. She just bowed slightly and gestured Alex ahead of her to the dance floor, licking her lips and taking a deep, steadying breath as she watched the way Alex's dress moved with her ass.

When Alex turned, her eyes were wide, nervous. Maggie, never taking her eyes of Alex's, took one hand in hers and put Alex's other hand around her waist before bringing her own up to Alex's shoulder. She started to move slightly and gulped at the way Alex took a sharp intake of breath at feeling Maggie's waist move under her.

"All good?" Maggie asked.

"You are so beautiful," Alex breathed in response, and it was Maggie's turn to breathe in deep.

Her sudden shyness emboldened Alex, and she pulled Maggie even closer to her, so they were moving, dancing, with barely any space between their bodies.

Neither of them knew how many songs they stayed like that, swaying slightly, moving just enough to be considered dancing instead of hugging, but suddenly the band was picking up a more explicitly Christmas-y tempo, and Alex looked up to see Kara giving a thumbs up to the lead singer.

She laughed slightly as she and Maggie both froze, unsure how to transition out of the spell that had been each other's eyes, each other's warmth, each other's mere proximity.

As if finding the answer, Alex grinned and, on a whim and with a prayer, spun her arm around above Maggie's head. Maggie caught on without hesitation, spinning her body out away from Alex with a soft laugh and spinning back into her body in time with the ridiculous, but ridiculously infectious, tune of "Rockin Around the Christmas Tree."

And that was their mistake.

Because when Maggie spun back into Alex, she let Alex catch her body with her back to her, the exposed skin of her back pressed against Alex's front, her ass pressed just in the right spot to turn Alex's laugh into a near growl, Alex's arms wrapped around Maggie's front, holding her close to her. Daring, Maggie continued dancing, casting her head to the side so she could see Alex's eyes flutter closed and her mouth slip open at the feeling of Maggie's body against hers like that.

"Maggie," Alex warned.

"Did you want me to stop, Danvers?"

Warmth and affection mingled with a deep-seated, single-minded need to touch Maggie's skin, to slip her out of her clothes, had been simmering in Alex since she saw Maggie in that dress, in those shoes, with that hair.

Now, with her flush against her body like that, _moving_ against her body like that?

"Bathroom, _now_."

She disentangled herself from Maggie's body and walked off the dance floor with a calm, warm smile that screamed of her ability to pass a lie detector test. Maggie gulped and followed, maintaining a similar facade of holiday party innocence.

"Maggie, hey, you enjoying the – "

"Sorry, Winn, gotta – be back soon, okay?"

Winn mumbled something incoherent as Maggie patted him on the shoulder and passed him by, and Maggie almost stopped to give him a more proper apology: almost, because the thought of Alex's legs in that dress, the way her collarbone was just begging to be kissed, licked, nipped at as it stood out from the one-shouldered strap Alex was wearing, drew her forward after her girlfriend.

Their hands met on the threshold of the bathroom and Alex wasted no time pushing Maggie into an empty stall, elegant stone floors ringing with the clicks of their heels.

"Alex, I – "

Alex pulled back immediately, wide-eyed fear on her face. "I'm sorry, you probably don't want – did I hurt you, I – "

"Jesus, Alex, no, no, I just – in the… very swanky… bathroom of the L Corp holiday party? You sure you want to – "

"Maggie, next time maybe ask that question before you grind your ass into me like that, okay?"

Maggie groaned at Alex's swearing, at the raw desire in her voice, and melted into her open-mouthed kiss, letting Alex push her back against a stall and tug her dress up to her hips.

"Thank _god_ you're not wearing tights," Alex rasped, and Maggie hissed as her cool fingers shoved aside her underwear.

"I'm from Nebraska, this isn't cold to – _Alex_!" Her breathy explanation became a scream and Alex reached down to hold up one of her legs by her waist as the fingers of her other hand slipped deep into Maggie's body.

"You are _so_ beautiful," Alex repeated for the second time that night, watching as Maggie's eyes fluttered closed and her hips arched forward to accommodate more of Alex's hand.

" _Well_. Fucking a gorgeous woman while Christmas carols drone in the background in a public bathroom at a holiday party for a famous rival of the Supers. Not exactly how I expected to find you, former Director Danvers. But I can't say I'm _entirely_ surprised."

Alex's back went ramrod straight as her stomach flipped with all kinds of movements at once; she let down Maggie's leg gently but quickly, carefully but efficiently, wiping her fingers on her own forearm as she helped Maggie pull her dress back down. She cupped Maggie's concerned face with her hands briefly, reassuring her that they weren't in any kind of trouble, before turning around with a somehow confident drawl.

"Lucy Lane. Back to National City for… what? Lena Luthor's Christmas party? Doesn't your sister have something to say about that?"

"Well _your_ sister apparently doesn't. She's out there chatting it up with Lena right now. And by the look in Lena's eyes, you'd guess she's thinking about doing exactly what you two just were."

Maggie's chest heaved as she struggled to stay standing, eyes flitting back and forth between this stranger, decked out in a full military dress uniform, and her girlfriend, who still had Maggie's lipstick smudged on her neck and lips. The two just stood there, stiff, regarding each other for a few long, long moments. For a second, Maggie was concerned one was going to slug the other.

And then, as though it were coordinated, Alex and Lucy stepped forward at the same moment, arms open, for a brief, solider-like but deep, hug.

Alex grasped her by the shoulders when they parted. "It's good to see you, Lucy."

"And you, Alex. And um…" She looked over Alex's shoulder to Maggie. "You must be the girlfriend. I mean, I hope you're the girlfriend."

Maggie laughed and pushed herself forward off the wall, hand extended. "Detective Maggie Sawyer, NCPD Science Division. And yes, I'm the girlfriend." She beamed that _this_ is what made Alex Danvers blush, not being walked in on knuckle deep inside someone.

"Major Lucy Lane, Judge Advocate General's Corp. Directed the DEO for a spell there, too. Glad to see _someone_ was finally able to bring Agent Danvers here out of her shell."

Alex shuffled her feet and pffted, and Lucy looked baffled. "You even figured out a way to make her bashful and speechless? I like you, Detective Maggie Sawyer, NCPD Science Division."

It was Maggie's turn to blush, and Alex rolled her eyes. "Lucy, seriously, I thought you weren't due back until New Years'."

Lucy shrugged. "Lena extended an olive branch invitation to me, and Jimmy'd mentioned to me that Supergirl was close with her, so I figured you all would be here and… Christmas surprise!"

"Well, I'm glad you came."

Lucy arched an eyebrow at Maggie. "And I'm sorry you didn't. But I'm sure there'll be plenty of time for that later, hm?" She winked lasciviously over her shoulder and dodged a swing from Alex as she led the dazed pair out of the bathroom and back into the wash of Christmas lights and music and dancing and –

"Oh my… is that… is that _Kara_? Dancing with Lena _Luthor_?"

Lucy's eyes went wide – but not as wide as Alex's – and she leaned in to mutter to Maggie, "There's two in the family and they don't even know it." Maggie chuckled and nodded and watched, transfixed, as the room muttered and pointed, half at Kara's hand on Lena's waist, half at a blonde figure cutting her way through the crowd toward the dance floor.

Alex, Lucy, and Maggie inched closer, joining a slack-jawed Winn and James, standing right next to the dancing pair.

"Has someone been naughty at the Christmas party?" Winn murmured to Alex suggestively, and she smacked him in the back of the head.

"Stop the violence," James sing-songed, and Lucy elbowed him in the ribs.

"Who asked who to dance?" Maggie asked the boys, partially out of burning curiosity and partially to save them from further damage.

"I have no idea," James muttered back. "We just heard a hush over the room and saw that – wait, hold on – "

Winn took a visible step back and an audible gulp as the blonde figure who'd been cutting through the crowd now emerged at the edge of the dance floor.

"Is that – "

"Ms. Grant," he and James said together, and both of their eyes flitted back and forth between Kara and Cat, Cat and Kara.

Kara hadn't noticed her yet, but the entire room knew the moment she did.

" _Ms. Grant!_ " she squealed, and had wrapped her in a steel-solid hug before anyone, including Lena, had even seen or felt her move.

The Superfriends – and the entirety of Lena Luthor's guest list – watched as Cat Grant's icy expression from moments before melted into resigned relief as she leaned into Kara's embrace, holding her tightly to her with her palms as her fingers gently traced the exposed skin on the back.

"Cat Grant," Lena greeted as the two finally, slowly, pulled back from each other.

Cat stiffened immediately and fixed Lena with a smug look that sent old, nearly forgotten shivers down Winn's spine.

"Lena Luthor. A lovely party you're throwing tonight, though I really could have done without the tacky mistletoe."

Maggie smirked to herself; she _knew_ Lena'd put up mistletoe somewhere.

"Yes, well, we can't all have the Queen of all Media's taste level at _all_ times, can we, Cat?"

Kara was looking wide-eyed and horrified between them, and Alex recognized the twitch in her fingers, like she wanted to fly out of there and come back as Supergirl to stop any potential fires.

"I trust you know, Lena, what a distinct honor it is to have been the subject of an early Kara Danvers interview."

Kara's lips twitched upward despite herself, and she straightened ever so slightly.

"I do, yes. She's quite a treasure."

James and Maggie met eyes and gulped.

"Indeed she is."

Maggie shifted forward before anything else could be said. She'd never been one to be intimidated by people in power, and she had to admit, this whole situation – especially coming off the high she'd been on before Lucy walked in on them – was pretty adrenaline-producing.

"What the hell is she doing?"

"Your girlfriend's bold, Danvers. Keep her."

"I plan to."

"Um, excuse me, ladies," Maggie said warmly, softly, pitching her voice so only those closest could hear it, indirectly telling anyone who didn't know the women involved personally to back off and get back to their eggnog and champagne. "Kara, I'm sorry, can I borrow you a sec?"

She took Kara's arm gently, and Kara pouted.

"But Ms. Grant's here – "

"I'm not going anywhere, dear, I'll be here when this charming young woman returns you."

Maggie nodded at Cat, but Kara still protested slightly. "Maggie, I – "

"Kara, please?"

They walked away together, toward the others, leaving the earshot of Cat and Lena, who were still exchanging barbs about who knew best how to care for Kara.

"What is it, Maggie?"

"Little Danvers, please, tell me you _know_."

"Know…"

Maggie smirked and looked over Kara's shoulder at Lucy, who nodded encouragingly. Maggie hung her head and sighed before looking back up at Kara.

"That these majorly powerful, accomplished, dignified boss ladies are currently fighting over you like kids in a high class schoolyard. Like, whoever survives the war of wits gets the girl type fighting."

Kara looked wildly over at Alex, then at James, then at Winn, then at Lucy. She was met with pursed lips, averted eyes, a facepalm, and a broad smirk.

She looked back at Maggie, furiously adjusting her glasses. She smiled. She spluttered. "What? _No_. That's… that's _ridiculous_ , Maggie, I mean – pfft." She adjusted her glasses again and squinted over at Cat and Lena. She looked at them for a long moment between staring back at Maggie.

"You think so?"

"Yep."

They stared at each other for a long moment and Maggie braced herself for a coming out speech from another Danvers sister.

"Maggie," Kara started hesitantly. Maggie smiled slightly and nodded encouragingly, openly.

"Wasn't your hair up when you came in? How come it's all out and down now?"

A spray of champagne suddenly covered Maggie's back and Kara's face as Alex groaned and Lucy choked on laughter, on the champagne that she'd been drinking that had without warning and with a lot of pain – worth it pain – shot back out through her mouth and nose at Kara's question.

James and Winn scrambled for napkins and mopped up a stunned Kara and Maggie, trying desperately to contain their laughter for fear of the look in Alex's eyes.

"Not a holiday party without a little champagne through the nose, huh Lane?" Winn asked as Lucy blinked the tears of pain and laughter out of her eyes.

"Well, we've made our contribution to the evening," Alex said with as much dignity as she could muster, grinning with feigned innocence as she grabbed Maggie's hand. "Kara, good luck with your – " she gestured vaguely in the direction of Cat and Lena. " – _thing_. Lucy, let's all do lunch or something tomorrow. You," she said to Maggie. "Home. _Now_."

Maggie followed willingly, grinning broadly at Winn's whistle, James's laugh, Kara's groan, and Lucy's whoop at their backs, knowing without hesitation that she was falling in love with this woman who would be so bashful and doe-eyed one moment and dragging her away from a Christmas party and into bed the next.


	6. Chapter 6

"Winn."

He jumped nearly a mile high, and Alex bit down a smirk. "Alright there?"

"Whatever it is, it wasn't me, I swear. Unless it's a good thing, then sure, maybe I had something to do with it."

This time, Alex did allow herself to smirk.

"Maggie's sad," she told him without preamble as she folded her arms across her chest and leaned her hips against his desk.

Winn tilted his head to look up at her. "She certainly seems happy enough whenever I see you two together," he prompted, and was rewarded by that doe-eyed smile Alex wearing more and more often these days.

"Yeah, but I think… I think she misses home, you know? Like, whenever I say it's cold, she kind of laughs and says this cold is nothing. I mean, it's nice because she gives me her jacket – "

"Awwwww." He earned a smack in the head, but lighter than normal, and he waited for Alex to continue.

"But you know, I can tell she just… the weather, you know, it doesn't feel like Christmas to her. Here. I think she wishes it were colder. She used to go ice skating with her dad every weekend, you know, and I think… I think she'd like it if it snowed."

Winn scoffed. "Snow. In National City. Too warm even for typical fake snow. You'd need a full on atmospheric shell and an ice converter to – to – "

Alex was grinning down at him, now, and he looked around them nervously. " _Alex_."

"Winn."

"You want me to _steal_ equipment from the DEO just so your girlfriend can get her snowball fight on?"

Alex squinted at nothing in particular in the distance and leaned down closer to Winn. "I was thinking more like… _borrow_."

She fixed him with the most innocent, isn't-it-sweet-how-much-I-love-my-girlfriend face she could muster, and sure enough, within seconds he started stammering.

"I – it – I could – alright, alright. But you're helping."

"Of course I'm helping. Can't let you have all the credit."

"What are we getting credit for?"

Alex and Winn both jumped.

"Kara! Hey… we… you know what, nothing, nothing you need to worry about, you know, we were just… science-y stuff, computer stuff, boring, you know, it – it really – nothing exciting, nothing you need to really think about or get involved with or even, you know, be in the room for."

"Oh my god, Winn, you're as bad at this as she is."

He held up his hands innocently and Kara put her hands on her hips, pouting. Alex sighed and resignedly drew her sister close and whispered the top secret, J'onn-can't-know-or-he'll-give-us-that-look-and-the-explaining-all-the-reasons-it's-an-irresponsible-use-of-planet-altering-technology-speech plan.

Kara's eyes lit with excitement, but she didn't squeal or jump around as Alex had expected her to. Instead, she pulled back and pushed a stray lock of hair out of Alex's face and behind her ear.

"You are an absolutely perfect girlfriend, Alex, you know that? Maggie's the second luckiest woman in the entire galaxy."

"Second?" Winn asked as Alex choked on a sudden onslaught of tears.

"Me. I'm the luckiest. Because you're my sister."

Winn smiled and looked down at his desk as Alex drew Kara in for a deep, long hug. He was already planning exactly how to pull this off.

* * *

It only took Winn and Alex a day to get the plan together. They'd stolen moments of their breaks and lunch hours to set up an atmospheric shell around two of the hills used for DEO training and nothing else. Winn had chosen the location, drawing himself up with pride when he explained to Alex that it was optimal for both snowball fights and for sledding.

By the next day – which was, mercifully, Sunday, and Maggie had a few shifts off – it was all ready to go.

Alex picked her up on the Ducati outside her apartment, nearly shivering with excitement.

"So where are we going, Danvers? You never said," Maggie asked as she ran a finger down Alex's spine, making her definitely shiver this time.

"You'll see," Alex bragged as Maggie slipped onto the bike behind her, Alex's abdominal muscles tightening reflexively at Maggie's touch.

Alex revved the engine like a teenager trying to impress her high school crush, and Maggie's laugh vibrated through her body as Alex pulled away.

Alex hadn't seen the sight yet – she'd just been assured by Winn, Kara, and James that it looked and felt perfect – and if Maggie was confused and awed when the Ducati pulled up alongside the grassy slopes that suddenly were awash with banks of pure, sparkling, undisturbed snow, Alex was breathless. She parked just outside the invisible shell Winn had set up to contain the snow burst – didn't want her bike getting overly wet and cold – and took off her helmet as quickly as she could, wanting to watch Maggie's face as she did the same.

"Danvers, what… how?"

"Winn and I set up an atmospheric shell so we could control the climate in just a specific part of town. We made it snow."

"But… _why_?"

Maggie hadn't taken her eyes off the glistening snow, her hands still holding her helmet by her chest. Tears and a faint smile that was more in her eyes than her lips held her face.

Alex stepped closer to her and took the helmet from her hands, securing it on the seat of the bike. She took Maggie's hands into her own and put her forehead on hers.

"You talk like you miss it. The cold. The snow. So I… brought it to you."

"Alex." Maggie's voice was ragged and now there were definitely tears in her eyes. "You did this for… _me_?"

"Yes, of course, why… why wouldn't I?"

Alex caressed Maggie's hair with her fingertips and watched her girlfriend swallow, hard.

"People don't…" Maggie lost her words and decided she didn't need them. "Not for me."

Alex cupped her cheeks in her hands and kissed her soundly, kissed her softly, kissed her with every ounce of feeling she could muster. "Well, _I_ do. For you."

"Alex, I l – I love it. Thank you."

Alex smiled so brightly Maggie feared it would melt the snow for a moment, and they did nothing but hold each other's hands and stare for a long, long minute.

As if on cue, Winn, James, and Kara appeared, trudging over an embankment of snow that had Winn sinking up to his calves.

"You guys gonna stare at each other all day or you gonna come in and get defeated in a snowball fight?" Kara called happily, a lilt of Supergirl in her voice.

" _Defeated_?" Alex and Maggie scoffed in unison.

"You're going down, Little Danvers," Maggie yelped as she jumped from grass into snow. James laughed, shaking his head as he presented Maggie with the coat, gloves, and hat Alex had told him to bring for her.

She suited up, beaming at Alex the entire time, and the games began.

* * *

Maggie was apparently an excellent shot. She could launch a snowball barely looking, and nail Kara while she was flying, easy.

She and Alex rapidly developed a system: Alex packed the snowballs and left them in a line. Maggie chucked them. The snowballs exploded on Kara, and on a shrieking Winn. James built up their fort to protect Maggie and Alex while they built and tossed.

" _Traitor_!" Winn had screamed, and James had nearly collapsed with laughter.

"You have Supergirl on your team, Winn! And don't think I don't know what you've been planning!"

Winn scoffed and took a snowball to the shoulder before ducking back down behind the tree he'd claimed as his protector again.

"You know nothing, you traitorous… _traitor_ , you!"

"You been taking lessons in giving insults from Kara, Winn?" Alex goaded, and Kara hesitated in the air.

"Hey – _oof_!" Maggie had taken advantage to launch three perfectly aimed snowballs at Kara.

"No fair! None of us grew up with snow!" she called, but she was grinning from ear to ear.

"Yeah, none of us can fly either, Little Danvers!"

Maggie was constantly laughing, even as her face screwed up in focus right before she threw, and Alex knew she was in love.

"Okay, Kara! _Now_!" Winn shouted suddenly.

James, Maggie, and Alex exchanged a concerned look. Kara sped away, down, to collect snowballs to launch – so far, she and Winn had been on the defensive rather than the offensive – and Winn emerged from behind the tree, his coat stripped off, leaving him in a black and silver jumpsuit.

"Oh, Winn, you didn't," James muttered.

"What? Make a terrible fashion choice?" Maggie asked.

"He made a suit. A snowball fighting suit. That little bastard." Alex shouted the last part, and Winn just cackled.

"Come on, gimme your best shot _now_!"

Kara launched a stream of snowballs at the trio, and they all ducked behind James's fort. The force of the Supergirl powered snowballs puckered nearly clean through the snow walls.

Alex dove under Maggie's arm to launch two well-placed snowballs at Winn in his new suit. Instead of just exploding into poofs when they made contact, they bounced right off of his suit and careened at high speed and with deadly accuracy back toward Alex.

"What the – " Maggie yanked her back behind the fort as Alex let loose a string of curses at Winn for being a cheating, conniving, no good cheater.

"Okay. Plan," Alex said as James hastily reinforced their fort and Maggie laid down a volley at Kara, not bothering with Winn because it would just, apparently, bounce of his freaking suit. "Sawyer, stay with Olsen and lay down cover fire. I'll go around and take down Schott from the south side. Olsen, you take the north side and lay your best volley on Supergirl."

"Hey, why does James get to have all the adventures?" Maggie protested.

"Because she thinks you're cuter than I am, Maggie, so she'd rather protect you from getting pulverized with supersnowballs than me."

Maggie tugged at Alex's arm. "Awww babe, is that true?"

"Yes, Mags, I find my girlfriend much cuter than my sister's ex boyfriend. No offense, James."

"None taken."

Maggie straightened up, proud of herself, and got hit full in the face with a snowball from Winn.

"You'll pay for that, Schott!" she called, swiping snow out of her eyes, but her smile was wide and Alex didn't know whether her heart wanted to melt or murder Winn.

"Now can we do this?"

A smirk and a faux-serious nod met Alex, and she tensed, ready to draw Kara's snowball fire away from Maggie and James. Ready to take down Winn and his stupid snowball suit.

As promised, Maggie laid down cover fire that would have done an army cavalryman proud.

Alex didn't bother with snowballs at Winn – she knew they'd just bounce off his stupid suit – so she crept behind him, crawling on her stomach through the snow like she was in an old WWI movie.

She waited until she heard Kara's heat vision sear into Maggie's snowballs above her, heard James and Maggie calling foul, heard them cursing and shouting that she couldn't be allowed to fly and use her heat vision, heard Winn lose himself in a bout of belly laughter – and that was her opportunity.

She pounced, bringing him down at the knees, delighting in his shriek, in the way he flailed underneath her, in the way she tugged the cap of his suit back and soaked his hair through with a fistful of snow.

"Okay okay, uncle, uncle!" he squirmed, and Alex smirked, keeping one knee on his chest as she looked up to find James and Maggie both zeroing in on Kara's flight path from below.

Suddenly a voice rang out over their playing field, and all five of them froze like small children with their hands in a cookie jar.

"Mr. Schott! What exactly have you done with our atmospheric shells?"

 _J'onn_! Winn mouthed up at Alex in a panic, and before he could blink or yelp or grab her, Alex was off of him, a wicked grin on her face, running, sprinting through nearly knee deep snow to grab Maggie by the arm. She grabbed at a plastic circular sled that James must have brought to the top of the hill, shoved Maggie down in front of her, and kicked off. Kicked back.

Sent them spiraling at top speed down the hill.

Maggie screamed with laughter and Alex just laughed, reveling in the feeling of Maggie in her arms, her friends – when had Kara's family become her friends, her family? – up on the hill above them, the exhilaration of near free fall at the steepness of the hill they were careening down…

Near the bottom, Maggie shifted to grab Alex from behind her, and they rolled down the rest of the hill, sled abandoned, just rolling side to side, on top of each other over and over and over, snow and speed and laughter obliterating the distance between their bodies.

Maggie landed on top, and before Alex could breathe a word, Maggie's lips were on hers, her tongue slipping warmth into her mouth, her lips the only warm thing left on the planet, her mouth, her breath, a map of exactly how to survive, how to do more than survive: how to live.

Alex had created an entire winter paradise for her. She'd noticed, she'd done without being asked, she'd given without expecting to take anything. She'd… cared. And more, she cared enough to bring her into her circle, into the small, small group of people that Alex allowed herself to just be with. Because Maggie had told Alex that she didn't care for many people, and that was true; but neither, it seemed, did Alex, and for her to just bring Maggie into her family like that, for her to trust Maggie with heat vision and supersnowballfighting suits, for her to manipulate the atmosphere to create a piece of home for her and ask for nothing, nothing, nothing in return…

"I think I'm falling in love with you, Alex Danvers," Maggie whispered, and before Alex could cry, she pulled Maggie's lips crashing down onto her own, showing her, showing her, showing her, that she was already in love with her, that she'd never stop being in love with her, that it was Christmas and she was in love for the first and last time, with the woman laying on top of her in the snow that she and her friends had made for so that she'd be happy, so that she'd be just a little bit closer to home.

"Agent Danvers!"

J'onn's voice rang down from on top of the hill, and Alex groaned irritably into Maggie's mouth. Maggie laughed into their kiss before pulling back, sitting up and tugging a weak-kneed Alex with her.

Above them, J'onn and Kara were flying down the hill with elegant nonchalance while James and Winn raced and whooped beneath them on their own tiny sleds. James came to a graceful stop while Winn rolled over himself at their feet.

"I hear this whole irresponsible scheme was your idea, Agent Danvers," J'onn commented mildly as he and Kara came to ground in front of the others.

"Actually, sir, like I was trying to explain – "

"It was mine."

"No, it was me, all me, totally my idea."

"Hell, I should jump in on it, too. Totally my plan, an NCPD experiment gone wrong."

J'onn tried and failed to stifle a grin as everyone who worked for him, and even those who didn't, ambled on about who was the mastermind.

"Next time you want to make your girlfriend smile, Alex, all you need to do is ask me."

He touched Alex's cheek softly, and Alex flushed with feeling as Kara grabbed at James's arm.

"Yes, sir," she smiled wetly.

"Now I believe we were in the midst of an epic snow battle," J'onn said to the rest of them. A chorus of yeahs rang out and in an energetic second wind, everyone turned to trudge back up the hill to their forts and their stockpiles of snowballs.

Alex watched as the people she loved most laughed and tugged at each other, as Kara, Maggie, and Winn teased each other about who would win without flying and supersuits, as James and J'onn laughed about something Alex couldn't quite hear.

"Winn," she called, and he turned around and ambled back to her.

"Yeah?" He looked up at her, melting snow dripping from his sopping hair. She wiped a trickle of icy water off his cheek with her finger and pulled him into a deep hug.

" _Thank you._ "

He froze for a moment – but only a moment – before he returned her hug firmly.

"Merry Christmas, Alex Danvers."

"Merry Christmas, Winn Schott."


	7. Chapter 7

**_This is heavy on MAGGIE BACKSTORY 2k17 so it got a little long; hope it's worth it! I combined a couple prompts on this because, happily, I got an abundance! I hope that's okay!_**

 ** _From bacop150: "12 days of Christmas prompt. Maggie volunteers at a shelter around the holidays. Something she's done since her rookie years in uniform. She usually never tells anyone but this year a special kid has only one wish. To meet Supergirl. So Maggie is forced to ask for Alex's help making the wish come true. Alex gets to see the connections Maggie has made through the years even meeting people she's helped. They spill the beans about her kind heart even though she always acts tough. Backstory Maggie" and from anon "sanvers + looking for christmas trees"_**

 ** _Heads up: this story has a very happy bent, but includes references to the negative experiences of queer youth of color who've been kicked out of their homes, and sometimes physically abused, by their families. Sending love to those of our communities who have experienced or are experiencing this struggles._**

* * *

Christmas was usually Kara's department, and that was generally just fine with Alex. She had her fire place, and that was as holiday as she got. Too many holidays drinking too much wine to cope with not feeling enough for your mother, with missing your father with all your heart, with how happy your sister is and with not understanding why you feel so empty in the midst of everyone else's joy… That'll kill the holidays for a person.

It had long since killed them for Alex.

But this year? This year, since coming out? This year, since Maggie?

"Your place is _huge_ , babe, at least you could have a little Christmas tree. Something to remind you that it's not all about alien invasions and death rays from space."

"Death rays from space."

Maggie leaned up and kissed her earlobe, and Alex froze. "Missing the point, Danvers," she practically growled into her ear, and Alex barely suppressed a groan.

"Just a little Christmas tree, huh?"

Maggie had lit up so brightly at Alex's concession that it solved the matter then and there: within twenty minutes, Alex had let herself be dragged out to National City's Garden Depot, which had all but established an artificial forest of evergreens, waiting to be attached to the top of car roofs and brought home to be draped with candy canes, sparkling lights, and photo frames of first anniversaries and lost loves.

Maggie had interlaced their fingers and Alex found herself staring down at the spot where her entire body's senses had lit up. She gulped and Maggie's hand stiffened.

"I'm sorry, did you not want – "

" _No_ ," Alex said firmly, taking Maggie's hand tighter. "I want to hold your hand. I'm just still… getting used to it, is all."

Maggie nodded softly, but then her eyes caught a tree behind Alex and her eyes lit up.

"Oh, babe, this one is _gorgeous_." Maggie let go of her hand and suddenly Alex found herself jealous of the pine needles on the tree – a little taller than Maggie, modest in girth but full, just this side of understated beauty – because Maggie's hand was running over the needles and she was speaking, softly. Alex stepped closer with a tilted head – a habit she was picking up from Maggie – and furrowed brow.

"What?"

"Oh," Maggie shifted her feet. "I always… I always feel bad, you know. They're killed just to make our living rooms look nice… I like to… you know, thank them, I guess? It's stupid, I know, but I – "

But Alex had grabbed her face and pulled her up into a searing kiss, and Maggie – a little shocked, but pleased – melted into the kiss, letting her tongue brush Alex's bottom lip.

Alex moaned slightly, forgetting entirely where they were, and nearly whined when Maggie pulled back a moment later, tugging her phone out of her back pocket apologetically.

"Sorry, Danvers," she flirted as she glanced down at the text. Her face – flushed and heated with desire and affection a moment before – drained of any happiness a moment later, and her eyes flew wide.

"Alex, shit, I'm sorry, I have to go – "

"No, it's fine, work – "

"It's not work. I'm sorry, I'll explain later, I – get this tree, I – I'm sorry babe, I have to go."

She pulled her down for a quick kiss to her lips and sprinted back to her Triumph, leaving Alex to stare after her, bewildered and worried and falling in love.

* * *

 **Christmas Eve, Five Years Ago**

Maggie sighed as she replayed the last text message exchange with her mother in her mind, having memorized it so her eyes were free to do her job, not keep staring at her phone every two minutes.

 _I already explained Ma. Rookie cops don't get to take holidays off. I'm sorry. I miss you guys._

 _It's not enough that you didn't come home for the holidays during college, now that you're right out of college you avoid us, too? Your father and I didn't raise you like this, Margaret._

 _I'm not avoiding you, Ma, I'm doing my job. And it was one year in college that I didn't come home, ONE._

 _To stay with that girl instead of your family!_

 _Ma, I am sorry. I have to go, I'm going on patrol. I love you. Merry Christmas, Ma._

She'd gotten no response.

She sighed as she adjusted the still stiff, unfamiliar collar of her uniform as she shifted down the street, eyeing the rush of last minute Christmas shoppers and families with something akin to envy.

As the sun set, laughter and shouts of Christmas wishes flooded the streets, and they were almost enough – almost – to bring Maggie out of her thoughts and bring a smile to her lips.

Amidst the din of revelry, she almost didn't hear the wet coughs coming from the alleyway between the National City Science Museum and its adjacent bookstore.

She stopped walking so abruptly a small child careened into the backs of her legs. She turned and he cowered, already knowing to fear cops at the age of, she guessed, six or seven.

"I'm sorry, Officer," the boy spluttered, and his mom rushed up behind him, putting her arms over his chest.

"I'm sorry about my son, Officer, he's just excited – Santa coming tonight, you know."

Maggie stared into the mother's deep brown eyes, trying to calm her fears with her own. She crouched down in front of the boy, keeping an ear out for that coughing in the alleyway.

"Your mama's right, kiddo. Santa tonight: that's a lot to be excited about. He bringing you anything special?"

She glanced up at the mother, who beamed in a combination of headiness and relief.

"A new science book!"

" _Hey_!" Maggie held up her hand for the boy to slap, and he did enthusiastically. "That's exactly what I'm hoping Santa brings me! Maybe we'll get the same one, and then we can compare notes, okay?"

She tickled the kid's ribs and he squirmed and shrieked with laughter.

Maggie stood and stepped out of their path, sweeping them on with her hands. "Merry Christmas, kiddo. Ma'am."

She watched the kid's bouncing step and the mother's ass – she chided herself for that one – as they walked away, but she didn't follow.

There was still the coughing in that alley.

Right hand tense above her gun, she slipped into the dark passage between buildings.

She stole behind a green dumpster that was taller than she was, and what she saw next sent her sprawling to her knees.

A boy – no older than thirteen – was curled fetally between the dumpster and the building's back wall, a rapidly swelling bruise on his cheek and blood pouring from a gash on his mouth.

"Kid, what happened?" Her hands were immediately on him, checking for other injuries, as her eyes swiveled around for his possible attacker. She grabbed at the walkie on her shoulder and was about to call for an ambulance for him.

" _No_!" he yelped, grabbing with a shaking hand at her wrist.

"Kid, you need an ambulance, you – "

"I don't, I don't, please. Please, just let me – " He looked absolutely terrified – more terrified at the idea of am ambulance than he was at laying alone in an alleyway bleeding – and he coughed some more. Maggie was relieved to see there was no blood coming from his insides. She relaxed a bit and waited.

"Okay, it's okay. You're safe now. I'm listening."

She peered into his good eye and put a tentative hand on his knee. He didn't tense away, so she swiped her thumb across his tight jeans.

"I… I can't tell you."

There was something about the way he spoke; about the tightness of his jeans, the bandage on his earlobe marking a fresh new piercing; something about the particular kind of terror in his eyes. Something that Maggie recognized. Something that Maggie remembered.

Something that she'd been reliving, with her mom's texts earlier.

"Okay." She nodded and sat down next to him, untucking her uniform to get at the undershirt underneath it. She ripped until she had a decent strip of cloth, and she pressed it to the side of his bleeding mouth. "Okay, you can't tell me. But can I tell you a story?"

"You're a cop. Aren't you gonna arrest me?"

"For what, for being lousy in a fight?"

"It… wasn't a fight." Maggie's heart leapt, hoping he'd elaborate. But he shut off again, so she just nodded again.

"Okay. My story now?" He just stared at her, his dark eyes waiting. "When I was your age, I kissed a girl for the first time."

His spine stiffened, as she'd guessed it would, and his eyes flew wide open. "Her big brother beat me to a pulp. But you know what? I had a home to go back to. Not an alleyway to hide in. So lemme ask you: why aren't you home?"

"That wasn't a very long or happy story."

They both stiffened as a group of older teenagers walked past the alleyway, yelping about Christmas plans.

"Did I say it would be long or happy?"

The kid giggled despite himself, and Maggie smiled softly, biting down her rage.

"There's a shelter where some of us stay. The ones whose parents kick us out when we come out. I didn't know how to get there looking like this. I thought…" He regarded her with wide eyes and shook his head slightly. "I thought a cop might see me and arrest me or something. Will you… will you take me back there?"

Maggie arched an eyebrow. "A shelter for homeless queer kids on Christmas Eve. I could think of more unpleasant things to do on patrol tonight."

She braced his body as he stood shakily and brushed himself off.

"What's your name, anyway?"

"Jordan."

Maggie smiled and held out the hand that wasn't stemming the blood flow on his face.

"Nice to meet you, Jordan."

* * *

 **Present Day**

"What the hell happened, Jord?"

Jordan squinted up from his hospital bed, IV in his hand and eyes slightly unfocused. "We have to stop meeting like this, Detective Sawyer."

"Not funny, Jordan," the boy sitting next to him, holding his IV-less hand, chided gently, tears in his eyes and in his voice.

"What happened, Mateo?" Maggie asked Jordan's boyfriend as she strode across the room to stroke Jordan's matted hair.

" _Someone_ decided to try to go home to see his family for the holiday. But seeing as they made it clear he wasn't to step foot there again – "

"I'm their _son_ , it's the _holiday_ , I thought – "

"Detective Sawyer, don't," Mateo interrupted her as she reached for her phone. "You arrest his parents, they'll send his sister into foster care. She's seventeen, she's just got one more year. Come on, you know you can't screw it up for her when she's so close to just going off to college and leaving them."

Maggie ran a hand over her face and stared down at Jordan.

"What do you need, kid?"

"More morphine?" He poked at his bandaged ribs gingerly.

"Ha _ha_."

Jordan squinted up at the hospital TV dazedly, and a soft, sad smile started filling his face. Maggie and Mateo followed his gaze, and a rolling image of Supergirl stopping a car crash on the interstate blinked through the room.

"You know it was thinking of her that got me through tonight. How strong she is, how… how she came out as an alien, as a superhero, you know, even when it put a huge target on her chest." He paused, wheezing slightly, and Maggie took a deep, steadying breath. "I wish I could meet her. You don't ever run into her with your fancy new Science Division promotion, do you?"

Maggie kept her eyes on the television, no longer able to look at the sadness in Jordan's eyes, the pain in Mateo's. "Yeah. Yeah, I – you wanna meet Supergirl, Jordan? Then dammit, you're gonna meet Supergirl."

She sent a quick text off to Alex as she left his room twenty minutes later, asking her to meet at the bar.

On her way out of the hospital, she gave her information to the front desk, instructing that Jordan's medical bills be put in her name.

* * *

 **Christmas Eve, Three Years Ago**

"Yeah yeah, ho ho ho and all that stuff. I have your gifts from the precinct's drive, so gather round unless you wanna get coal for Christmas this year, yeah?"

The supervisor at the shelter shook her head and rolled her eyes at Maggie's sardonic ebullience, at the way the kids gathered around her and the cart of wrapped and bagged gifts she brought. "Why don't you tell them that _you're_ the one who organized the drive in the first place, Officer?" she muttered in Maggie's ears.

"Does Santa Clause go around begging for credit, Sam?" Maggie muttered back.

"Well actually, if you count all those mall visits and parades and shit – "

"Oh shush, Sam. Jordan! Wanna come help me give these things out, or you too busy with your new man?"

Jordan flushed and disentangled from the new boy he was dating, Mateo.

"Officer, what if all I want for Christmas is permission from my parents to start hormones, huh? What's your present bag gonna do for me then?"

"Are you insulting the depth of my present bag, Kay? Do you not believe in the power of Office Maggie Sawyer to meet all your Christmas needs?"

The other kids ooed and whistled, and Kay grinned down at Maggie. "Seriously though. I don't know what to do anymore, I just – "

Maggie put a hand on Kay's arm and rummaged around for a folder on the side of the otherwise lumpy bag. "Got a court order that I think might help you out, Kay. Name recognition, emancipation. You can start as soon as you can get an appointment at the clinic."

Jordan tossed an arm over Kay's shoulders and lifted her, spinning her around and laughing. "And you thought it was gonna take months to get all that through!"

"What favors did you have to call in to get that stuff expedited?" Sam leaned in to ask her. Maggie just grinned and watched as Kay showed off her papers to her friends.

"Merry Christmas, Office Sawyer."

"Merry Christmas, Sam."

* * *

 **Present Day**

Maggie had said nothing as she walked into the bar and shoved her body down onto a stool. M'gann raised an eyebrow but said nothing, bringing her three shots and lining them up in front of her. She hadn't seen Maggie like this since she started dating Alex, and thought she should call J'onn to make sure the two were doing alright.

She breathed a sigh of relief when Alex jogged in through the back door, eyes scanning eagerly for Maggie.

"Babe, what happened?"

Maggie didn't look up as Alex sat next to her, close, close, close. She just swallowed her first shot and then, immediately, her second.

"Maggie?"

Maggie fingered the rim of the third shot glass.

"A kid I know. Jordan. Seventeen. Been on the streets since I was a rookie cop here, five years ago. Twelve. Twelve, you wanna believe it? Because he likes boys."

Alex swallowed and shuddered.

"He tried to go back to visit for the holidays. They put him in the fucking hospital. Again. Some holiday spirit."

Alex stiffened. "Did you arrest his parents, where – "

Maggie stilled her with a hand to her arm. "Sometimes justice is more… complicated. I'll explain later, I just…" She downed her third shot. "Kid just really wants to meet Supergirl. Hell, all the kids in the shelter probably wanna meet her. Especially that one. The one I… the one he crashes at, the one most of the queer kids crash at. I know it's a lot to ask, Alex, but do you think you could – "

"She'll do it. Absolutely."

"Yeah?"

Alex took Maggie's face into her hands and kissed her forehead, her temples. Her cheekbones, her dimples, her chin, her eyes, her nose. Her lips.

"Of course she will. Just say when and where."

* * *

"So how do you know this kid?" Alex asked softly as Maggie drove them in the cop car, a few days before Christmas. After Jordan was discharged. Just in time for the shelter's holiday bash.

"I uh… I met him when I was a rookie." She squirmed slightly: she didn't much like telling people how much volunteer time she put into that shelter, into those kids. If she bragged about it, it sort of made her guilty of using the kids for good person points with other people. And she never wanted to use those kids.

But this was Alex, and Alex was looking at her with those eyes. Those eyes that wanted to know her, those eyes that wanted to break through the walls that her ex had called "obsessed with work" and "borderline sociopathic." Those eyes that understood the walls that her ex had called "obsessed with work" and "borderline sociopathic."

Maggie gulped as she decelerated, as they reached the building where she spent most of the off hours she wasn't at the bar.

"I volunteer. Here. It's a homeless youth shelter, it – it wasn't much when I was a rookie, but they – we – it's developed over the years. I – " Maggie pulled over to park, and glanced at her girlfriend. Alex's eyes were full to the brim with tears, but they were still wide, still absorbing everything, still those eyes, and Maggie found that once she'd started, it was hard to stop. "Some of these kids, some of them I've known since I was fresh out of the academy."

A pause. "Like Jordan."

Maggie nodded and put the car in park. Alex was still staring at her, and it made her squirm.

"Supergirl knows where to be?" Alex nodded.

"Maggie, I – "

"Detective Sawyer!" Maggie's face lit up, and she raised her eyebrows at Alex excitedly before slipping out of the car and into the arms of a tall woman with buzzed hair and a collared shirt. Jealousy pitted in Alex's stomach, and she concentrated on maintaining a neutral expression as she got out of the car and walked slowly around to Maggie's side.

"Alex! Alex, this is Sam, she runs the joint."

Sam disentangled herself from Maggie's arms and strode to Alex, taking her hand into both of hers warmly. "So this is the Agent Alex Danvers that our Detective Sawyer won't stop gushing about." The jealous pit in Alex's stomach vanished, and she felt the blush creeping up her chest and blossoming all over her face. She stammered something about it being nice to meet her, and Maggie beamed behind them.

"Come on in, the kids are eager to meet you. Overeager, maybe… Don't mind them if they uh… other than my wife and me, and some of our friends, they don't always get to interact with too many queer adults in relationships. Forgive them if they ask… _inappropriate_ questions."

Alex's eyes flew wide, but Maggie just laughed as she slipped her arm around Alex's waist and followed Sam inside.

A Christmas explosion that reminded Alex of a more homemade version of Kara's apartment assaulted their eyes when they walked in. Covering almost every inch of every wall were pieces of writing, pieces of art, banners proclaiming the holiday season and banners proclaiming that queers were here to stay.

Maggie's hand didn't leave Alex's waist, even as she dolled out fruit punch from big plastic bowls to a bunch of kids in various states of homespun holiday garb, even and especially as the kids bombarded Alex with questions about how she and Maggie met, about what working for the FBI was like, about who asked who to be their girlfriend, about their first kiss, about who topped and who bottomed (Alex had choked and Maggie had chided, "Keep your discourse in your own heads, please!", to the deep bemusement of everyone involved).

But Alex slipped out of her girlfriend's proud grasp long enough to roam amongst the kids and hear the stories Maggie was too humble to tell her.

"She got me out of juvie when they arrested me for carrying condoms, I don't think I ever saw her so mad, you know?"

"She came to every hearing I had when I needed to get a judge to make my parents pay for my health care."

"She thinks we don't know, you know, not cause she thinks we're stupid, she just thinks she's pulling the wool over us, being modest or some shit, but she's the one who got her precinct to do those toy drives and clothes drives and toothbrushes and stuff for us, I mean, they didn't do that before she worked there, did they?"

"Did she tell you about the self-defense classes she teaches us? Look, lemme show you how to get out of an attack from behind, I mean I'm sure you know, but here, lemme show you – "

"I don't know her so well, I uh… I'm new here, you know, but she's the only cop any of the others really trust, and hey, I mean she's hot, so there's that."

"Every holiday, she cooks us something different. She made you cookies yet? Or lasagna? God, you have to get her to make you lasagna."

Alex kept stealing glances at Maggie, across the room, with each conversation feeling the more and more urgent need to touch her skin, to kiss her lips, to take her clothes off and positively worship her, to hold her and cradle her and cry and sob and rage that she could do all this and not tell anyone, not have anyone, to tell her, short amount of time they'd known each other be damned, that she loves her and she will always love her and –

Jordan saved her from the overwhelming need to kneel in front of Maggie and bare her soul to her.

"Hey, so when does Supergirl get here?" he called, an excited gleam in his eyes. Alex caught Maggie's nod across the room, and Alex hit send on a prewritten text to Kara on her phone.

On cue, Supergirl soared through the window that Maggie had asked Sam to keep open despite the chill.

"I heard this was where the bravest bunch of kids in National City were having their Christmas party," Kara announced into the awed silence, her voice both ebullient and grave in her Supergirl mode.

Maggie strode across the room to Alex and buried her face in her shoulder as Kara descended and embraced Jordan gently, minding his ribs, talking to each of the kids one by one by one by one.

"They're never gonna forget this," Maggie rasped, and Alex nodded, throat too tight to speak, body and mind on too much fire to trust her voice.

She swallowed a few times. Breathed in through her nose, out through her mouth a few times.

"They love you so much," she whispered to Maggie: even as they all fawned over Supergirl, Alex thought she'd gotten a pretty good idea of who their other superhero was.

Maggie just smiled, watching the kids and Kara carry on. "I love them."

A long silence, watching. Watching. Feeling each other's warmth, feeling the warmth from the occasional spells of laughter from whatever Supergirl was telling the kids.

"Was it like this for you, Mags? This lonely, but at the same time this…" She looked around the room, at the way the kids touched each other casually, like family does; the way they seemed to really know each other, like family does; the way they watched out for each other, like family does.

"Full?" Maggie supplied.

"Yeah."

Someone started playing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" on a tinny speaker, and Maggie paused to let the tune sink into her bones, to let the image of Supergirl telling these kids that they were the real superheroes sink into her skin.

"Sure is full now," she said, and she reached up to turn Alex's face to hers, kissing her slowly, kissing her soundly, kissing her like it was the very first time.

"Wooooooohhhh, get it, Detective Sawyer!"

Jordan's voice broke them apart in a fit of gasping giggles, and Supergirl laughed and covered her eyes.

"You don't see me interrupting your intimate time with your bae, do you?"

" _Intimate time_!" Jordan shrieked with laughter, and the other kids followed.

Alex laughed along, her face bright red, watching Maggie be someone she'd never seen before but desperately wanted to know better: someone who was a decade older and younger at the same time, a glimpse both of the girl she was and the person she would be, all wrapped up in the woman she was now.

So when one of the kids ran up and dangled a sprig of mistletoe over their heads, Alex couldn't help but draw her back into the most public, and most happy, kiss they'd ever shared.


	8. Chapter 8

**_Okay, combining two prompts again because yall too kind with your promptage._**

 ** _And by the way, thank you so much for all the love this story is getting. It warms my heart to be writing it, and it warms my heart even more that you're reading and enjoying it. Thank you, thank you, thank you for giving me a reason to keep writing and celebrating._**

 ** _Anyhow!_**

 _Prompt 1, from anon: "Maggie was going to go back home for Christmas but her flight got cancelled last minuet but keeps it from Alex because she doesn't want to ruin her Christmas. Alex finds out and insists Maggie joins them." Combined with prompt 2, from anon: "How 'bout a Superfriends/Sanvers Christmas movie and cookie night? For the 12 Days thing, of course."_

* * *

Maggie's hand covered her face as she listened to the phone chaotically being transferred from her mom's hands into those of her tiniest cousin. She bit her lip and she took a deep breath, in through her nose and out through her mouth. She ground her foot into the ground, hard, her elbows resting tensely on splayed open knees. She ignored the sounds, the sights, of families in Santa hats with massive rolling suitcases bouncing through the airport with excitement. Her own excitement had long dried up, and she was waiting to crush that of another. She closed her eyes and tried to focus on not crying.

"Mags Mags Mags!" a little voice sounded on the other line.

Maggie uncovered her face and forced a smile, as though her cousin could see her, not just hear her.

"Hey, little girl," she choked, holding her left hand up to her chin, right under her bottom lip.

"You're coming home now? You getting on the vroom vroom?"

Maggie squeezed her eyes tight and took a steadying breath. "I was, Maya, I was coming home. I was all ready to get on that vroom vroom and fly all the way to you. I was gonna fly the plane right to the front door."

Maya emitted an extremely squeaky giggle, and Maggie's eyes stung. "Noooooo," Maya said, her logic making Maggie smile softly.

"But you know what, little girl, you know what I just found out? You know the big snow storm that's starting now where you are?"

"The blizzard!"

"Mmhmm, the blizzard. Well, the people who are in charge of the planes aren't letting anyone fly into or out of Nebraska, honey pie, because they want to make sure everybody stays safe in all that snow and wind."

A long silence. Then: "So you're not coming home for Christmas?"

Maggie choked on a sob. "The blizzard isn't supposed to go away until the day after Christmas. So maybe for New Years, maybe I'll be there then. I'm so sorry, little girl."

"But I _miss_ you!"

Maggie bit her lip. "I miss you, too."

She heard the phone shuffle and crash somewhere, and Maya's mom picked up the phone. "Sorry about that, Mags. I'll go get her. Wanna stay on the line?"

"Nah, no, nah, I'm good, I – just tell her I love her and I'm sorry, yah? Talk – talk to you all later."

"Mags – "

Maggie hung up the phone quickly and took a long, shuddering breath, the fingers of both hands running over her face.

"Nowhere else to go, sweetheart?" an older woman who'd been sitting in the terminal a few seats down from her asked, sad warmth on her face.

Maggie shook her head. "I know some people here, some people I – some people I'm getting close to. There's this girl, this woman, I – but she has this family, this really tight knit family, and I don't wanna impose, we're not together like that yet – "

She didn't know why she was saying all this to some stranger. She just knew that talking to Maya – that missing her family – was shredding her heart.

"A young woman like you? I'm sure this girl and her family would be happy to have you. And on Christmas Eve? You might be more together than you think."

Sure enough, Maggie's phone chirped, then.

Her heart twisted.

Alex.

 _Have a safe flight, Maggie. Let me know when you land, okay? Miss you already._

When she looked up from blinking through the tears and reading the text, the older woman was gone.

* * *

"Kara, wait hold on, turn that up!"

The news – always on in the background so Supergirl didn't miss anything, even during their most raucous of Christmas celebrations – was showing a weather map over Nebraska, and Alex had noticed it with a spoonful of cookie dough in her mouth and a fingerfull of flour she was throwing at Winn as retaliation for his teasing questions about missing her _girlfriend_.

"She's not my girlfriend yet, you little – " She'd flushed, but she'd been unable to hide her pleasure at his playful mockery. James had his arms around her waist, holding her back, and she let him, the laughter more than his grip paralyzing her in place.

But they all froze when she did, all turned to the TV as Kara grabbed the remote from under the stack of Christmas pillows covering the couch and turned up the weather report.

"And we repeat, folks, no flights are going in or out of northern Nebraska until at least Thursday. The blizzard is expected to – "

Alex stopped listening. James released her as she dove into her back pocket for her phone, wiping the flour she'd meant for Winn on James's shirt absentmindedly as she went. He scoffed silently, watching her with compassion as she dialed Maggie's number and put the phone to her ear.

She waited. Waited. Waited.

"Maybe she found another way to get home?" J'onn asked.

Alex shook her head. "She's not planning on telling me. She's gonna spend Christmas alone."

Kara stepped forward, brow furrowed. "But why would she – "

Alex just bit the inside of her cheek. "She wouldn't want to impose."

"She would never be _imposing_ , you love her Alex – "

Alex looked up with wide, doe eyes. Kara put a steadying hand on either of Alex's shoulders. "And if you're not ready to tell her that, or even to call each other girlfriends yet, that's fine. But she shouldn't spend Christmas alone."

"You won't be mad if I – "

"Of _course_ not. We'll hold off on putting in the movies until you get back, and for now, I got the cookies; you go get the girl."

Alex laughed wetly as she drew Kara in for a quick hug.

"Yeah, go get the girl, Danvers!" Winn called at her as she slipped out the door, grabbing her leather jacket and helmet on the way without breaking her stride.

Alex grinned as she jogged down the hallway, bounced down the stairs, swallowing the slight guilt of pinging Maggie's phone as she did so. She couldn't whisk her away from a lonely bottle of whiskey without knowing where she was, after all.

Go get the girl, indeed.

* * *

Maggie didn't mean to ignore Alex's call. Not exactly.

It was just that, by the time she was done fighting with herself in her head – _She has that massive Superfriends family, you're not a part of that – But she's dating you, and that whole crew is super welcoming, of course she'd want you to join – You've been alone on Christmas before, it's not a big deal – She'd be horrified if she knew, and how could you lie to her like that? –_ the phone had stopped ringing.

Maybe Alex had buttdialed her or something, because – even though Maggie waited for a few long minutes, just staring down at her phone, ignoring the stream of texts coming from alternately angry and sympathetic family members – no voicemail came in.

She heaved a sigh and sat back in the chair she'd claimed a couple hours before, at the terminal, now empty, that was supposed to bring her home. She held her phone between her thumb and her index finger and swirled it around, around, around.

Nowhere to go, she let her mind – so close to collapsing, to crying, better to stay in public where she wouldn't lose her cool – follow her eyes out of her own sadness. She tilted her head to watch the holiday travelers go by.

The siblings shrieking with laughter, weaving their way through adult legs and massive suitcases, to chase each other, to avoid the parents who were calling after them.

The teenagers, even when in large groups together with their phones out, occasionally all looking down at the same screen and watching for a few moments before descending into unified laughter.

The couples, arm in arm and hand in hand, exchanging kisses, irritated glances, and last minute, what-not-to-say-in-front-of-my-parents speeches.

The most beautiful woman she'd ever seen, all tight jeans, short hair and black leather, briskly and efficiently weaving her way through the crowd, her eyes fixed only on Maggie.

"Alex, what – " Maggie struggled to find her words as she stood shakily.

Alex stopped a few feet in front of her, a heady mix of anger and desire smoldering behind her eyes. "What were you gonna do, lie to me for days, tell me how great things were in Blue Springs, how you missed me when really, you'd be holed up in your apartment alone on Christmas?"

Maggie looked down and licked her lips. "Alex, I don't know what I was gonna do, I just – I – how did you even – "

"Weather reports, Maggie."

Maggie nodded, again looking down, again looking like a scolded puppy. Alex's eyes softened, and she stepped closer. Touched Maggie's arm.

"Why would you ever think I would want you to spend Christmas alone?"

Maggie shrugged, not quite meeting Alex's eyes. "You guys have such a tight-knit group, I… I didn't wanna impose, I – "

" _Maggie_." Alex tilted her chin up, forcing her eyes to meet hers.

"Come home with me for Christmas. It might not be Blue Springs and it might not be your cousin Maya, but it – it's cookie and Christmas movie night, and we would all love to have you. _I_ – I'd love to have you."

She framed Maggie's face with her hands and pulled her into a slow kiss. A few teenagers passing the terminal whooped, and Alex pulled back, bright red.

Maggie swallowed the fire in her stomach and the overwhelmed lump in her throat. "And I'd love to be with you."

Alex smiled, and it lit up the entire airport.

"Good."

Before Maggie could move, Alex bent, grabbed her duffle bag, grabbed Maggie's hand, and set off for where she parked her Ducati.

* * *

The oven was chiming and Christmas carols were blasting and J'onn was fiddling with a bug-eyed, green alien ornament on the tree and James was laughing and Winn was swiping unshaped cookie dough out of a massive plastic bowl and Kara was reaching into the oven without mitts to bring out the first batch of snowmen-shaped sugar cookies.

She tilted her head, then, and squinted her eyes. James stared at her for a moment. "Alex on her way back?" he asked, knowing the look Kara got when she used her super hearing.

In affirmation, she beamed and jumped and almost scattered the cookies. Winn went to grab for them and yelped when he remembered he couldn't touch the tray without gloves.

"Mr. _Schott_ ," J'onn growled with an eye roll that he would swear wasn't affectionate – and he'd be lying – and strode across the apartment to grab a whimpering Winn's hand and run it under cold water.

Kara watched them with a grimace, and set the cookies down more calmly. "I just heard her park her bike."

Winn let out a pained hoorah, and James laughed, shaking his head.

"We have to make sure she feels welcome, okay? Since M'gann's working tonight, she'll be the only one who doesn't know us all that well yet," Kara told everyone unnecessarily.

Alex's key scraped the lock a few moments later, and Kara used her x-ray vision to see outside.

Maggie was frozen on the threshold, and Alex had taken both of her hands into her own. "Maggie, I – you're welcome here. You're always welcome here, it – I – you're my gi – it – you're always welcome here, okay?"

Maggie arched an eyebrow and leaned up into Alex. "What were you about to say there, Danvers? I'm your what now?"

"I – pfft, nothing, it, I – "

"Are you asking me to be your girlfriend, Alex Danvers?"

Kara swung the door open, unable to watch her sister squirm like that another moment. "Yes, of course she is, Maggie, now will you accept and come join the party? There's _cookies_!"

Alex leaned down into her. "And there's gonna be _movies_."

"Mmm, well, Christmas movies and cookies with my _girlfriend_." Maggie shrugged and Alex drew in a sharp breath with the brightest eyes Kara had ever seen her have. "I could do worse, wouldn't you say, Little Danvers?"

Kara drew Maggie in for a rib-crushing hug. "I would."

Alex wavered at the threshold for a moment, watching as Kara drew Maggie into the apartment, as James gave her a one-armed hug, as J'onn nodded warmly at her, as Winn held out spoonful of cookie dough for her to try. As Kara tugged her along to give her the tour of the tree, of the view from the back window, of the oven with the next batch in them, this time chocolate chips. As Maggie looked over her shoulder back at Alex, as only one word to describe the look on her face came into Alex's mind: _love_.

She stepped shakily back into the apartment, slowly, like she was in a daze. And she was.

Maggie Sawyer was her girlfriend, and it was Christmas Eve, and the family was together, and Kara and Winn were showing Maggie the massive stack of DVDs and animatedly explaining to her the deep, ancient honor of being able to pick the first Christmas movie on Christmas movie and cookie night.

James walked up and put a hand on the small of Alex's back, and J'onn walked up to her other side and touched her shoulder. She let herself lean sideways into J'onn's chest as they all watched the scene unfolding before them, Maggie finally selecting "The Holiday" over "Love Actually."

"If she hurts you, Alex, I won't hesitate to transform and use all my strength against her, you know."

Alex cocked an eyebrow and looked up into J'onn's only half-teasing eyes before looking back at Maggie, at the way her eyes lit up when she made Kara laugh, at the way she called her Little Danvers and slapped easy fives with Winn when they got the finicky old DVD player to start.

"She won't hurt me," Alex told him. "But you can feel free to transform and use all your strength against me if I ever hurt her."

"You won't," James said, and Alex smiled at him.

"Hey, you three! Quite staring like creepers and come! The Christmas movie portion of Christmas movie and cookie night has _begun!_ " Winn shouted, and James and Alex dragged J'onn away from trying to escape before having to sit through such a quintessentially human spectacle.

Within minutes, J'onn had spread himself out on one couch, pretending to read a DEO tech report while secretly, Kara noted with glee, watching every move Kate Winslet and Jack Black made; James, Winn, and Kara curled together on the other couch, reaching rhythmically onto the same heaping plate of cookies to constantly keep their mouths chewing; and Alex and Maggie sprawled on the floor, limbs tangled in each other's under a heap of blankets and over a mass of pillows. Alex's fingers traced through Maggie's hair, and Maggie's fingers traced patterns onto Alex's stomach.

"Thank you," Maggie whispered to her as everyone else ooed and laughed and debated proper form when Cameron Diaz punched her ex in the face.

"For what?" Alex asked, eyes and attention only for Maggie.

Maggie's eyes traced the room: full of Christmas, full of warmth and the scent of fresh cookies, full of hope and full of laughter and full of family. Her heart ached for home in Nebraska, but she thought, for the first time, that maybe – just maybe – she could start coming home to somewhere else – some _one_ else – too.

"For giving me a home on Christmas."

Alex blinked down tears and pulled Maggie into a soft, long kiss.

Winn noticed first, and he hit at both Kara and James repeatedly with the backs of his hands. James grinned and scrunched his nose up – "Awww," he mouthed – and Kara hid her smile behind her hands. J'onn suddenly became very interested in the movie, and Winn bounced up and down on the couch slightly with excitement.

A pillow suddenly flew up and smacked him right in the nose. James snorted and Kara dove across the couch to save the cookies.

"I can hear you freaking out, Schott," Alex growled from the floor, and Maggie's chuckle was cut off by Alex's lips returning to her mouth.

"Well, I can see you kissing your _girlfriend_ ," Winn singsonged, undeterred.

A second pillow smacked him in the face, and easy laughter flowed through the apartment, lights sparkling, movie playing, cookies cooling. Family cuddling.

The most perfect Christmas Eve any of them had ever had.


	9. Chapter 9

**Aaaaand we have** ** _yet another_** **#GiveMaggieSawyerABackstory2k17 story here!**

 _Prompt from the lovely atsirc: "did i ever actually send u the xmas prompt? the one where maggie misses her grandma's xmas cake or something and alex stealthily contacts all her family members to get the recipe and makes it for her (even tho it takes her like 48957289529 tries to get it right) xoxoxo pls i love u i am a Big Fan of urs"_

 _(I'm a Big Fan of yours as well, my dear! I hope you enjoy!)_

* * *

The temperatures had, shockingly, dropped into the 40s and most everyone in National City was red-eared and miserable.

But Maggie? Maggie was ecstatic, with a strong dash of nostalgic.

"Nebraska gets much colder than this," she told Alex as she burrowed into her chest. She gingerly avoided pressing down on her girlfriend's stomach, which was full of the chili Maggie had whipped up with the bag of groceries she'd hauled to Alex's nearly empty kitchen.

The mugs of homemade cocoa Maggie'd made to top off the meal were still steaming, and fogged up Alex's glasses. Maggie chuckled at the sight and kissed Alex's nose as she reached up to take them off and wipe them clean on the red and white blanket they were both wrapped in: another addition Maggie had made to Alex's apartment.

"Some holiday cheer," she'd argued, and her dimples won before Alex could even think of protesting.

"You know," Maggie began as she slipped the glasses back onto Alex's face, sealed with another kiss, "my grandma used to make this cake for us. All leading up to Christmas. First day it'd hit the 30s, she'd made it. Sometimes it randomly got that cold in October, and those years were the best. Didn't matter if it was before even Halloween; we'd start Christmas whenever we first bit into that cake every year."

Alex ran her fingers gently through Maggie's hair, listening. She knew Maggie's grandmother had died the year before Maggie joined the police force in National City; she knew they'd been close. Very close. She knew her grandma had been the first person Maggie had come out to, had advised her on how to tell her father.

"Make sure you start by telling him how happy you are," Maggie had translated her words to Alex, "and maybe leave out the parts about how good it feels to kiss the girls, yah?"

Maggie took a long sip of her cocoa and sighed softly into the mug. "She wouldn't tell any of us the recipe, you know. It was chocolately and fruity and not quite cakey, you know, it kind of melted in your mouth, and I have no earthly idea how she did it or even what was in it. It'd just kind of appear, like Christmas magic or something." She shrugged.

"Speaking of Christmas magic. You told Kara I'll give her all the intel she needs for her report on the bar massacre, right?"

Tears nearly flooded Alex's eyes at the fire in Maggie's, and she kissed both of her eyelids as she nodded.

"How is that Christmas _magic_?" she asked with a tight throat.

"She's doing a memoriam piece. A short profile on everyone. She'll get people to give a damn. That's Christmas magic enough, huh?"

Alex drew Maggie in closer as they lapsed into their separate, but so connected, thoughts, their separate, but interwoven, griefs and memories and rages.

She wanted to tell her she loved her. She wanted to tell her she'd always love her, that she would never stop being in awe of the woman laying in her arms.

She watched Maggie's face bounce between thoughts of the bar and thoughts of her grandmother, and Alex decided she'd show her, instead.

* * *

"Winn."

He grunted in acknowledgement but didn't take his eyes off of the two delicate wires he was bringing together with pliers and a steady hand.

"I need you to take some information off someone's phone for me."

He grunted again before letting out a triumphant laugh at his success. He looked up at her.

"You got it. Who's phone we talking?"

Alex shifted uncomfortably, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Maggie's."

"Alex!"

"Winn! It's not what you think."

"I would _hope_ not."

She thought about smacking him upside the head. She thought about threatening him with her index finger.

But she found that she deeply appreciated his immediate defense of Maggie, his immediate indignation that Alex would snoop through her phone, would violate her privacy, wouldn't trust her.

He was already loyal to Maggie, and she loved him for it.

But she wasn't about to _tell_ him that.

"No, it's just that I… I don't want to look through her phone myself exactly _because_ I want to respect her privacy. I just need… I need to get in touch with some of her family members. Her mom, aunts, uncles, you know. I – I want to do something for her, for Christmas, and I kind of… I need their help. But I don't want to _go through her phone_ , so I thought – "

"You thought I could go through it for you and pull out just the numbers you need and nothing else."

Alex nodded efficiently as Winn regarded her for a long, long moment. "You know you're all mushy and romantic now, and it's kind of ruining your image a bit. You know that, right?"

He braced himself for a smack to the back of the head; he braced himself to be slammed against a wall and threatened within an inch of his life; he braced himself for Alex Danvers to do anything to restore her reputation as a devil-may-care badass, not a lovesick puppy who would do anything to make her girlfriend happy.

He braced himself, but Alex's actual reaction scared him much more than bodily harm would have.

She smiled. She beamed. She shrugged and tilted her head toward her shoulder and spun on her tip toes to leave the lab, all but skipping to the door. She turned before she left, and, still smiling that I'm-thinking-about-Maggie-Sawyer-and-I'm-the-happiest-woman-alive-smile, said looked him straight in the eyes.

"You tell anyone about this and you'll find out exactly how I killed that Hellgramite last year."

She smiled even brighter and waltzed out of the room.

* * *

"It, I, uh, I'll, I'll get right on it, Agent Danvers," he said to nothing but his lab equipment, a chill running through his back but a grin creeping onto his lips.

It was all too easy to access Maggie's contacts remotely with all the DEO tech at his disposal, and he slipped Alex a list of her family's phone numbers the next morning as she passed his work station on the way to a briefing.

Her smile was only sweet, only loving, only grateful, this time, no hint of teasing, as she palmed the paper and slipped it into her pocket.

"Thank you, Winn."

"Anytime, Alex."

And he meant it. That girl was family, and he'd never seen her so happy. He grinned as she nearly skipped into the briefing room, wondering when exactly they got this close and why he was so lucky to have both the Danvers sisters in his life.

* * *

Staring at the list of numbers Winn gave her, Alex was having major second thoughts.

She knew Maggie had told her family about her – Alex had practically quizzed her about how everyone reacted – but that didn't mean she knew what to say.

 _Hi, I'm sleeping with your daughter/niece/cousin/granddaughter and I want to make her this cake that your mother/mother/grandmother/late wife used to make Maggie and the family because she's lonely and she's sad and she misses all of you and she misses her grandma and she doesn't feel like it's Christmas without this cake but she has no idea what the recipe was and I'm wondering if you do because I can't cook worth a damn, let alone bake, but I'm a world-class scientist and I'll be damned if I can't figure out how to make this right for her._

It turned out that that script – sans the part about sleeping with Maggie, which she tactfully replaced with "girlfriend," a label that still gave her butterflies in her stomach and immense leaps in her heart every time she used it to describe her relationship with the amazing woman she couldn't believe she was lucky enough to be wanted by, liked by – worked very nicely.

It turned out that her family was charmed by Alex's unsure ramblings, by her pffting when they gave her compliments.

"Mags tells us you're the most brilliant woman she's ever known."

"I've never heard her so wild about someone, you must be very special, Agent Danvers."

"You know I told her I'd beat the crap outta you if you hurt her, and she cracked up because she said there's no way I could because you'd win, but that if she ever hurt you, she'd let me beat the crap outta her; so I'd say she likes you a lot, you know."

"How sweet you are to want to do this for her, oh, your soul is just as beautiful as Mags says it is."

It turned out her family was charmed by the immense contrast between Alex's awkward negotiation of receiving compliments versus her direct, efficient style of asking questions.

"And do any particular flavors stand out in your memory?"

"Maggie described the texture as not quite cakelike, that it would melt in your mouth; can you elaborate on that? Do you know what ingredients would create that texture?"

"Do you remember her being in the kitchen for a certain period of time when she made this cake, or if the oven was ever left on at a certain temperature?"

In the end, Alex not only had scrapped together what might or might not have been a recipe, _the_ recipe – she wasn't a world-class secret agent/spy/interrogator/scientist for nothing – but she'd also accumulated a series of Maggie stories that made her heart positively melt.

"She saved my life when we were kids, you know. I was skating on the lake where the ice was too thin, because I was trying to show off for some girl, you know, and Mags dove right in to get me – I couldn't swim, would you believe that? – and I was at least two times her size, and she still got me out of that freezing water. That cake was the first thing she wanted, even before warm clothes, when she dragged me back to the house."

"Mags was always different, with the whole liking girls thing and all. The white kids were allowed to be gay, some of them, if they were quiet about it. But from a family with darker skin, _and_ liking girls, _and_ not being quiet about it? _And_ being better at science than all the boys, wanting to go to college? Town small as ours? One of the fathers hit her in the face once, you know, for spending time with his daughter. Maggie swung right back at him, and it took all her cousins and two of her uncles to pull her back after that."

"You know, Agent Danvers, our Mags gave the eulogy at her funeral, and she made us all laugh, she made us all cry. And the center of her speech was this cake you're trying to recreate, this cake that always brought the family together. I don't think you know how much it will mean to Maggie – how much it means to me – that you're doing this."

Four hours, seven family members, and five long, shuddering breaths to regain some semblance of her composure, her DEO badass attitude, her I'm-sorry-did-you-say-something-because-I-was-too-busy-cataloging-the-ways-I-can-kill-you strut, Alex Danvers had a shopping list laid out in front of her and an entire evening cleared with J'onn to be off duty.

* * *

She nodded at Winn and squeezed his shoulder in gratitude as she headed out. He grinned as he watched her leave, wondering if he should send Kara to Alex's on standby with a fire extinguisher.

It was a Thursday night and the temperature had dipped into the 30s. Alex hated the cold beyond description, but she relished the timing of the cold front, the almost too-warm quality of her kitchen as she wiped sweat and almond flour off her forehead with the back of her hand, as she headed down to the store for her extra ingredients to fuel her fourth – or was it her seventh? – attempt at this thing.

The first attempt had collapsed in on itself (as had the third).

The second attempt, Maggie had called and the thing had burned while Alex got distracted listening to the sound of that voice, the rhythm of that speech, the rasp in that hint of suggestion when Maggie asked if she could come over later.

Alex lost track after that, of how many times and how many grocery runs to replace destroyed ingredients it became.

She lost track of how messy the kitchen was, of how late the hour was, of how dusted with flour her shirt was.

She only knew that when there was a quick knock at the door, it had finally worked; she only knew that when there was a quick knock at the door, the entire apartment smelled, finally, as Maggie's older cousin had told her ("Like Christmas, you know? No other way to describe it"); she only knew that when there was a quick knock at the door, the cake, finally, wasn't collapsed or burnt or too sticky or too cakey; she only knew that when there was a quick knock at the door, her heart was thumping near clean through her chest and an entire new species of butterflies were learning to race in her stomach.

She tugged the door open eagerly and leaned on the side of it, like she'd done the first time Maggie had come over, with a six pack and a large pie.

It had become a weekly tradition, since then.

It had become their _thing_. One of their many new things.

"Hungry?" Maggie asked, like she always did, exhaustion behind her eyes but pure joy and relief in her body language.

"Yes," Alex told her, gesturing her inside, wondering for a brief moment why Maggie was tilting her head at her curiously.

"Babe, why are you covered in flour – oh my _god,_ it smells so _amazing_ in here, what have you been – "

Alex slipped the pizza and beer out of Maggie's hands and secured them on the counter before Maggie could drop them; before Maggie saw the circular creation freshly steaming on the cooling rack that, unbeknownst to her, her mother had insisted to Alex was a vital part of the texturing process; before comprehension dawned and tears flooded Maggie's eyes and trembles flooded her hands and shock that someone would _do_ something like this for _her_ splashed down her cheeks and gratitude that this woman, _this woman_ , would _care_ about her like this splashed down the diminishing space between her body and Alex's; before her lips crashed onto Alex's, before her tongue was in Alex's mouth and her own tears were on Alex's cheeks and her hands were unsure whether to settle in Alex's hair or on the back of her neck or the small of her back or her hips or her elbows or her arms or under her flour-stained henley, so they roamed everywhere at once.

She tore her own jacket off and backed Alex up until her knees hit the couch, pushing her down, straddling her, and demanding access to her jawline, her throat, her collarbone. Alex moaned as Maggie's tongue, lips, and teeth found every one of her most sensitive spots, and Alex held her as the fire of Maggie's kisses yielded to the fire of her pain, of her overwhelmed sense of awe, of gratitude, of disbelief, of _how could someone possibly love me this much_ and _how the hell did she make it, anyway_ and _my god, my grandma would have loved her_.

Alex held her as hot kisses to the base of her neck became harsh, shuddering breaths, as grinding down on her body became wracked sobs, as breathy _thank yous_ and _hows_ became _why would you do this for me?_

Alex held her, just held her there on top of her, for a long, long few minutes, until the sobs passed through Maggie, until her eyes mostly dried and she was wiping abashedly at the wet spot she'd left on Alex's henley.

"I'm sorry," she muttered, and Alex shook her head and kissed her eyelids and ran her fingers through her hair.

"I just thought you could use a little piece of home for Christmas," Alex whispered, and Maggie smiled down at her through disbelieving, glassy eyes.

"Alex," she rasped, gravel and tears still in her voice, "you _are_ my coming home."

And sure enough, Christmas never had tasted quite as sweet, for either of them.


	10. Chapter 10

Gift-giving day!

 _A lot of you have been requesting a follow-up to chapter/day 4 (where James helps Alex figure out a gift for Maggie and Kara helps Maggie find a gift for Alex). You might want to read that chapter - linked above - to get the full context for this one!_

 _So… here's the follow-up where they react to each other's gifts! Enjoy :)_

* * *

Alex might have insisted that Maggie's NCPD lab was like an easy bake oven compared to the DEO's tech – and, okay, after seeing that James Bond style facility, maybe that was a little true – but Maggie grinned with her tongue between her teeth as she retested all the microscope slides she'd just finished making, just finished a total of seven hours gathering, computerizing, microprinting, setting, testing, redoing, testing again.

Her hair was pulled back out of her face and her fingers were drenched in the dye she was using to give the slides the best contrast on such an old microscope, and when Kara stepped silently into the doorway of her lab and watched her bending painstakingly over Alex's gift, she understood what her sister had meant when she'd called her beautiful. So beautiful.

"Hey Maggie," Kara said softly, not wanting to startle her. She did anyway, but Maggie recovered quickly.

"Little Danvers," she greeted, straightening up and trying to stretch a crick out of her neck. "How'd you get clearance to be in here?"

Kara grinned and stepped into Maggie's space, checking that no one was around. "There was a window open in the lab next door."

Maggie chuckled and rolled her eyes. "You're lucky I don't arrest you for breaking and entering. Into a _police precinct._ "

Kara shrugged innocently. "I didn't break a thing. Are those the slides? Is it done?"

* * *

"Mmhmm!" Maggie beamed as she stepped back and gestured Kara grandly toward the microscope, toward the set of a couple dozen slides that she'd painstakingly prepared.

Kara's eyes flooded as Maggie took her on a tour through the literal microscopic slideshow she'd prepared for Alex. Her eyes flooded as Maggie told her why she included each tiny photo, as she gave comical explanations for the close-up of the pool table at the bar and beautiful explanations for the photo of an old grass-covered field that she used to run sprints on, alone each morning as the sun came up, in Blue Springs. Her eyes flooded as Maggie got shy about the last photo – a selfie she'd snapped of her and Alex kissing in Maggie's bed, Alex's glasses on and Maggie's hair swept up away from her face, both of them in sweaters and jogging shorts, surrounded by police reports and DEO files and a half-eaten pie of pizza.

"I've… never seen her like this," Kara told her once she straightened up and found her voice. Maggie tilted her head.

"I..." Kara cleared her throat and started again. "She's never brought work home from the DEO. Or the library at school, or the lab. She just… she just stayed at work, at school, slept there, ate there, basically lived there. I've never seen her…" Kara peered back down into the microscope and adjusted the fine focus so she could she even better how relaxed Alex's body was, how melted she was against Maggie's lips. "Heck, I've never even seen her let anyone else _know_ she wears glasses, let alone wear them in front of someone."

She looked back up at Maggie, whose own eyes, now, were flooded. "I just want to make her happy, Kara."

Kara smiled. "You do. You will. This… she's gonna love this so much."

"Yeah? It's not stupid?"

"It's perfect," Kara assured her. Maggie's phone chirped, then, and she cleared her throat as she checked it.

"Duty calls," she said, and gestured to the lab's window with a wink. "I'm sure you can show yourself out."

Kara laughed softly to herself and wondered as she leapt out of the window and into the brisk air if this was going to be the first Christmas – the first holiday – where Alex didn't feel the need to get drunk to cope.

* * *

James didn't have to look up to know that the person knocking on Cat's office doorframe was Alex.

Kara would just walk in, as would Winn. And everyone else at CatCo, their knocks would either be immensely timid or immensely irritable, needing something more urgently than he could give it.

Alex's knock? Alex's knock, just three quick raps, was at once efficient and tentative; at once vulnerable and confident. Everything about Alex was in the way he knocked on her door, and he smiled as he looked up to see her strolling in.

"Are they ready?"

He just grinned wordlessly and took her by the arm, guiding her to his old art department office, where he still maintained a workspace for the sake of his own sanity.

"You don't think the whole idea is stupid, do you? I mean, they're mostly pictures of _me_ , right, how arrogant is that, like 'here Maggie, you can stare at me all the time, that's your present?'"

He cut Alex's rambling off before it descended into a Kara-style affair. "Alex. Maggie is going to _love_ this. Trust me. Just… just look."

She stepped into his office at his urging and had to hold in a gasp – badass DEO agents do not gasp – when she saw the photo frames she'd picked out, now holding the photos James had taken the other day.

" _James_ ," she whispered, not knowing which photo to pick up first, which to look at.

She'd never seen herself like this. Never through the eyes of someone else. Never through the eyes of someone who cared about her, who respected her, who loved her. James had immortalized her, not as she felt, but as a perfect combination of how he saw her, and how he wanted to show her to Maggie, in those moments he'd snapped of her searching for gifts, of her contentedly sipping hot cider on a cold day, of her tossing her head back laughing when they saw a ridiculous painting that reminded them of Winn.

But there weren't just photos of her alone. He'd also snapped away when they ran into Kara and Maggie; when she let the bags she was carrying hang off her forearms so she could reach up and caress Maggie's hair, Maggie's cheeks; when she pulled her face toward her, letting her lips part to kiss her, letting her eyes flutter closed; when their bodies had melded together, Christmas lights from the displays around them playing on their skin, on their hair, on their coats that were keeping them less warm than the contact between their bodies.

His photographs made it so desperately clear how different she was, now. Now that she knew, now that she accepted, now that she loved, and let herself love. His photographs made it so desperately clear how intently she loved the woman in her arms, the woman in her thoughts, the woman behind her smile.

"James," she whispered again.

"I told you she'd love it."

Alex chuckled. "I'm kinda worried now she'll fall for the photographer instead of the subject!"

James tossed his head back laughing, and Alex wondered how she got so lucky to have him in her life. "I don't really think I'm her type, Alex. I also don't think she has eyes for anyone but you."

Alex pffted and shuffled her feet in a way James was certain he'd never seen her do before coming out, before Maggie.

He wondered vaguely after she hugged him for a good long time, as he watched her leave carefully cradling the stack of photo frames in her arms, how different, how much more self-assured, she'd be by _next_ Christmas. He grinned at the thought.

* * *

 _Gift exchange tonight, right?_ Alex sent the text nervously once she got back to the DEO, dodging a raised eyebrow from J'onn about the way she kept staring at her phone like it was about to come alive.

She didn't have to wait long.

 _Wouldn't miss it._

What she didn't know was that Maggie _had_ been thinking about missing it, _had_ been thinking about calling it off, _had_ been thinking about wrangling together another time to give Alex her present.

Because – bonding time with Kara aside – Maggie still wasn't too sure about this whole 'all the Superfriends are getting together to give each other presents and you barely know anyone you're just sleeping with the sister but you'll be there anyway and whoops' thing. She'd bought them all gifts while she'd been out with Kara, but she was reasonably sure none of the Superfriends would have gotten her anything – why would they? – and she felt stupid, she felt exposed, she felt like she'd be embarrassed, like she'd embarrass everyone else, by getting them something when they would have nothing for her.

It had never exactly gone well, her past relationships mixing with ex girlfriends' friendships. She liked these people, these friends, this family, that Alex had. She liked them, a lot, but history was strong, and her track record was strong, and she was more than a little nervous about this whole concept of coming to such a tightly-knit family's holiday gift exchange party.

But Maggie was beginning to learn to read the tones behind Alex's texts, and the last one she sent, the very unnecessary confirmation of tonight's plans between two extremely efficient, plan-oriented women? That text, simple as it might have seemed to someone else, screamed to Maggie of Alex's wide-eyes, of her near constant need for confirmation that Maggie did, in fact, like her, of her bubbling desire to have her there, to hold her hand in front of her friends, to have her join her group of friends; her family.

Maggie understood all that, liked all that – loved all that, if truth be told, but if Alex was barely ready to comprehend that Maggie could like her, she knew she should probably hold off on the whole love thing – and so of course. Of course, she'd be there.

Because Alex Danvers was worth the risk. Every risk.

Even if it meant changing clothes four times (she eventually decided on simple black jeans and a black henley, imagining a combination of Alex's face when she would see her and how bright Kara's apartment was liable to be).

Even if it meant cruising her Triumph around Kara's block seven or eight times before her breathing rate settled enough to park and unload the gifts from her saddle bag.

Even if it meant pacing the hallway outside the apartment for long, long minutes – as she had the first time she'd shown up there – as the sounds of Winn's joyful shouting, James's ringing laughter, and Kara's excited proclamations poured along with Christmas music out the door and into her ears.

It was the sound of Alex's shriek of laughter – at something Winn did, it sounded like – that at once made Maggie want to melt away into the floor and that gave her the courage to raise her hand and knock.

"Maggie!" she heard Kara's voice and a pattering of footsteps, and her knuckles tightened on the box containing Alex's microscope; on the overloaded bags containing what she'd found for everyone else.

Alex opened the door with wide eyes and a breathless smile, and Maggie all but forgot how to take in oxygen, let alone form words. They stared at each other for a long moment, a long moment in which the Christmas carols wafting from the inside of the apartment enveloped them, in which James, Winn, and Kara's "awwww"s and J'onn's "oh, leave them alone" surrounded them, in which Maggie didn't have to say she loved her for Alex to know, in which Alex didn't have to say Maggie was her perfect for Maggie to know.

"Hi," Alex breathed after that long, long moment.

"Hey."

"Come in."

The spell over both women lifted – somewhat – as Alex stepped back to let Maggie into the apartment, where she was greeted by a bouncing-on-her-toes-with-excitement Kara and a holding-out-an-offering-of-beer James. Maggie hugged the first and gratefully clinked bottles with the latter as Winn waved at her from a sea of gift wrapping and J'onn nodded from his spot near the refrigerator.

"Looks like you brought the armada of gifts!" Kara winked, and Maggie's stomach threatened to rebel until she told herself, over and over and over again, that Kara's tone was approving, not mocking. That the small, wide-eyed smile on Alex's face was pleasure, not suppressed irritation. That the smirk on J'onn's face was a begrudging approval of this new woman holding the heart of his earth daughter, not condescension. That the smile on James's face was happiness for Alex to have found someone so thoughtful, not sarcasm. That the whoop from Winn and the way he ran over to help her put the bags and microscope box under the tree was genuine enthusiasm, not over-exaggerated responses to make her feel stupid.

"Well, yeah, there's an armada of you, so…" Maggie found herself explaining to no one in particular as Winn dove into her bags and sorted her gifts – according to the little labels she'd put on the wrapping – into separate piles under the tree, shaking the rectangular box with his name on it and cackling with excitement as he speculated about what it was.

To her surprise – to the clenching of her heart – there was one pile that Winn added nothing to from Maggie's bag.

A pile of gifts, already wrapped and under the tree, with her name on them, alternately scripted on labels or scrawled directly on the wrapping.

"For _me_?" she turned to ask Alex, who had crouched next to her and put her hand on the small of her back.

"Of course, for _you_ ," Alex whispered, casually putting her beer into Winn's hand so she could run her fingers through Maggie's hair.

"You didn't think we'd invite you to our gift party and not get you anything, did you, Maggie?" Kara asked, concern written all over her face.

Normally, Maggie would melt into the ground before admitting something so vulnerable, but there was something around Kara's eyes that looked just like Alex's, and there was something in the way Winn was shaking his head out of the corner of her eye, and there was something in the way Alex's thumb was rubbing the small of her back that allowed her to say, "I guess I thought I'd just have something from Alex. Not that you needed to give me anything at all," she told Alex, who just shook her head and stood up, pulling Maggie with her.

Back home in Blue Springs, there were too many over-sugared, pre-teen cousins to reasonably expect everyone to take turns opening presents, so Christmas morning was always awash with pleasant overstimulation from your aunt's shriek of excitement that her husband had finally gotten her tickets to that show she wanted to see, the clambering of feet that inevitably erupted when your cousins tore open their new soccer ball and just had to try it right now, the volleys of laughter and playful insults when your mother opened the gag gift that she and her brother had been passing between them for years.

But here? Here, everyone took turns going through their piles, so everyone could watch, could examine, could _ooh_ and _ahh_ and _that's perfect for him_ and _thank you so much, I love it, it's amazing_ and _where did you get that?_ and _oh crap I was gonna get her that for her birthday, thanks a lot, now I have to think of something new_.

The Danvers sisters had insisted that J'onn go first, and Maggie beamed when he laughed – a genuine, wholehearted, pure joy laugh – when he unwrapped the first edition of _War of the Worlds_ she'd found for him. She watched Alex's shining eyes as he pulled her in for a hug with the homemade thermal gloves she'd bought him, and she doubled over with the rest of them when he uncovered a "Supergirl is the BEST" t-shirt from Kara.

James was next, and Maggie's heart ached with tenderness when he hugged Alex long and hard for the old camera she'd found him and the overwhelming ache redoubled when he opened the knit cap and scarf Maggie had given him and he whispered in her ear, "I'm happy you're here," when he thanked her.

Winn loved the elf-patterned tie Maggie had picked out for him, and he put it on over his sweater right away, pulling her into his side to pose for a selfie. Her hands shook from all the unexpected warmth and attention, even as she laughed along with the rest when Winn shrieked on opening a box full of fake exploding snakes from Alex and James, even as she awwwed along with the rest when J'onn gifted him with a beautiful sterling silver tie clip with the words "IT saves lives" engraved on it.

When everyone chose Kara to go next, Maggie started suspecting that the crew was saving her and Alex for last, and she squirmed with nerves and an unfamiliar but increasing sense of belonging when Kara pulled her in for a long hug after opening the "I write so I can free the world" pen Maggie'd had engraved for her. Alex, eyes wide and glassy, kissed Maggie soundly as Kara opened her next gift. "You're so thoughtful, babe," she whispered, and Maggie's heart thudded.

"Okay, okay, my turn," Alex said after Kara finished passing around her last gift – a music box playing Kryptonian melodies from James and Winn – and she bounced eagerly on her haunches in a way that made her look more like her little sister than Maggie had ever seen.

She breezed excitedly through her other gifts – taking the time to model her new and improved thigh holster from Winn, which he made her promise she'd never make him regret – and paused with shaking hands when she got to the microscope box, an old, silver and black carrying case, from Maggie.

Maggie chewed on her lower lip and Kara nudged her in the ribs excitedly as Alex's fingers flipped the case's lock to reveal the old microscope within.

"Oh, _Maggie_ ," she breathed, lifting it reverently out of its slot and putting it on the space James and Winn hastily cleared for her. "It's _beautiful_." J'onn rushed to plug it in and Alex breathlessly examined it, muttering about its model and make to herself as reverently as though she were meeting the scientist who'd innovated it.

"That's uh… that's not all," Maggie said, and she passed her the box of slides she'd made. Alex furrowed her brow but arranged the first slide under the scope wordlessly.

Everyone held their breath as Alex let out a shuddering breath of her own. " _Maggie_ ," she whispered, saying nothing else as she examined slide after slide, as Maggie narrated each one to her – this one of the lake in Blue Springs where Maggie learned to swim and ice skate; this one of Maggie in her science lab in college; this one of her first day at the police academy; that one the first photo they took together, in the bar the night after they first kissed; that one a Hubble image of Alex's favorite nebula; that one of sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean; that one of the night sky over Nebraska; that one of Alex and Kara; that one of Alex pulling ridiculous faces and poses with the entire gang, J'onn begrudgingly grinning in the background, arms across his chest; that one of Alex's fingers intertwined with Maggie's the last time they strolled on the beach together.

" _Maggie_ ," Alex breathed again, finally looking up from the microscope and blinking tears out of her eyes.

"You _made_ all those slides… for _me_?"

"Of _course_ for you, babe. I didn't do all that for _Winn_."

"I think I resent being the butt of all the jokes."

"I think that doesn't matter."

Alex pulled Maggie in for a deep kiss. James smiled, Winn whooped, Kara awwwed and lowered her eyes, and J'onn just turned away completely. James thumped him on the back and the sound brought Alex's lips away from Maggie's. Her eyes were shining like Maggie had never seen them, and she grabbed for something under the tree.

"Still not done!" She shoved Maggie's pile of presents at her, and – hands still shaking from the entire evening, from watching Alex with that microscope, with that slideshow; hands still shaking from _that kiss_ – Maggie tore slowly at the wrapping of each gift, still not quite believing that the Superfriends had thought to get her anything at all.

J'onn had gotten her not one, but two things: the first, a more sophisticated bulletproof vest than NCPD could offer, and the second, a short, gag picture book entitled, "So you're interested in dating my daughter."

Winn had elaborately wrapped, in a massive box, a tiny, tiny computer chip that he said would allow her phone to cross reference the NCDP's database with the Fort Rozz escapees list so she could up her chances of knowing, faster, what she might be dealing with in the field.

Kara had gotten her a fresh set of tools to work on her Triumph, which she assured her the woman at the store had explained was top of the line.

James gave her a National City shot glass and a "how-to" pool book, apologetically telling her that his real gift would come with Alex's.

And then Maggie _really_ stopped breathing, because Alex's eyes were wide and she was biting her lip and she was clasping her hands together in front of her chest as Maggie uncovered the photo frames Alex and James had put together for her.

It took her longer than it normally might to examine them, to pick each frame up and really look at the photo, because her eyes were suddenly full of tears and her hands were shaking even more than they'd been when she'd first realized that this was not going to be another trainwreck social event that would end with her alone in the street with no one to call and no girlfriend anymore.

"I know they're mostly of me – James took them when we were shopping for you – and I know they're not, you know, the most useful present or the fanciest or whatever, but I thought maybe you'd like to hang them on that wall above the couch in your apartment, like maybe we could add to them, see, I got blank frames, too, frames that don't have pictures yet because they're for our future pictures that we haven't taken yet, I mean maybe that's stupid and presumptuous and I've gone too crazy on you and it's okay if you hate it but I – "

Alex's rambling was cut off by Maggie's hands on her cheeks, in her hair, on the nape of her neck, her lips on her lips, her tongue in her mouth, her tears on her face.

"Alex, no, these are – this is the most perfect gift I've ever gotten. It's perfect, they're perfect – " She glanced at James gratefully over Alex's shoulder and he smiled broadly – " _you're_ perfect. And this is…" She glanced around at all of them, now, at Alex's sister and space dad and best friends. " _This_ is perfect."

"You know what else is perfect?" Kara interjected, heart swollen with happiness but also wanting to give them space to make out _not_ in front of her, "Cookies and potstickers!"

She scrambled up and almost toppled the tree, and a laughing James, Winn, and J'onn followed her, leaving Alex and Maggie wrapped in each other's arms, wrapped in the midst of torn wrapping and stitched hopes, broken tape and salvaged dreams, wrinkled tissue paper and new beginnings.

"So I take it you like them?" Alex asked of the photos, of the still empty frames, at least one of which was soon to be filled with the picture James was snapping right now. "That's… that's what I'm getting."

Maggie answered with a kiss, and Christmas had never tasted quite that sweet.


	11. Chapter 11

**Maggie takes Alex home to Blue Springs for the holiday.**

 _Because #GiveMaggieSawyerABackstory2k17 is not at all a theme for this collection. Naaah._

 _I also use the prompt from Anon: "christmas sanvers: cuddling by the fire on christmas eve. Its late, its snowing and isn't it wonderful?"_

* * *

Alex had gone quiet when the plane landed in Nebraska, her eyes wide but smiling as she watched Maggie come home; as she watched Maggie develop a swagger that was at once the same and vastly different than the one she had in National City; as she watched her greet everyone in the airport by name, watched her slap one of the security guards on the back and send her love to his kids; as she watched her swerve into the only airport coffee shop still open this time of night to pull the teenage employee into a hug; as she watched her haul their luggage out of baggage claim and elaborately handshake the sole staffer in the place, a Santa hat skewed on his head, before he pulled a small ring of keys out of his pocket and tossed them into her hands, saying "Your pops dropped it off earlier, it's in your usual space in the lot. And this must be your girl?"

Alex blinked a couple times and stepped up to the man, his green eyes studying her face with a keenness that made her gulp.

"Alex Danvers," she told him, offering her hand. He took it and had a surprisingly light grasp considering the intensity of his stare.

"Tom Benson," he returned, a smile taking over his entire face at the firmness of Alex's grasp. "It's _Doctor_ Danvers, right? Mags won't shut up about how geniusy her girlfriend is. Or how hot – or, what is it you said, _absolutely gorgeous, the most beautiful woman I've ever laid eyes on_ – and I gotta say, the woman has a point."

"Shut up, Tommy," Maggie said, but she looked utterly pleased as Alex squirmed with a burning red face. "Tom and I were the only out kids in our high school; kinda bonds you, even when the other person's an _ass_." She shoved her shoulder into his and he just laughed.

"You realize you're a third my size, don't you, Sawyer? Although," he turned to Alex again, still grasping her hand with his, "some of the guys decided to beat the gay outta me when we were I was a junior and this one was just a wee sophomore. She was suspended for a week for the sheer amount of damage she did to the quarterback's pretty face." He pulled Alex closer to him. "She just barely avoided getting slammed with criminal charges, but don't tell her other cop friends, okay?"

Alex laughed. "Somehow I don't think they'd be in the least surprised."

"You know she's never brought anyone home before – "

" _Tommy_ – "

"I'm just sayin. I expect a full report on how meeting the family goes, right?"

Maggie rolled her eyes and started tugging Alex away. "Thanks for the keys, Tommy," she singsonged.

"Good to meet you," Alex called over her shoulder, a cockeyed grin on her face.

"Good to meet you too, Dr. Alex Danvers," he waved, laughing to himself and shaking his head.

"Thought you said you were an outcast here," Alex wondered aloud, and Maggie nodded quietly, thoughtfully.

"Airport tends to be where everyone who wants to leave but can't quite make the jump wind up working." She chewed the inside of her cheek. "And anyway, except for Tommy, none of those folks were white." She glanced sidelong at Alex and swallowed. "It makes a difference."

Alex mirrored Maggie's quiet nod and brought her hand to her lips, kissing each knuckle as they walked. Maggie grinned shyly.

"You planning on doing that when we get home?"

"Am I allowed to?"

Maggie stopped walking. "Babygirl, you're allowed to do whatever you want, whenever you want. Blue Springs might not be National City – and god knows National City has its problems, too – but you be you, always, understand me?"

Three words – three terrifying, unfamiliar words that she had never even been tempted to say to anyone else before, not like this – rose to Alex's throat from deep, deep in her core. She took a breath and she almost opened her mouth, but she didn't. She just nodded, and Maggie gave her a twisted half smile before bending suddenly to dig in her bag.

"Here," she said, producing a long coat, scarf, and black beanie that she'd somehow crammed into her suitcase. "Much colder here than what you're used to." She grinned as Alex reluctantly tugged on the winter gear. "My west coast girl."

Alex tried to glare – really, she did – but being called Maggie's anything girl made her too weak in the knees to process any response other than trying to remain standing.

When she'd shrugged on her own coat, Maggie took Alex's hand again and tugged her out to the parking lot. Alex shivered and Maggie blew forcefully into the air, relishing the way her breath appeared in white clouds in front of her.

"Ha _ha!_ " she laughed triumphantly and yanked Alex into a jog through an obstacle course of ice patches, weaving a chaotic path to a navy blue pickup truck with a dented bumper and an aqua green lightening bolt painted on one side.

She tossed her bags into the back of the truck before turning to Alex and pointing an accusatory finger at her, a habit she must have picked up from spending so much time together, much like Alex was starting to develop a head tilt.

"Do not comment on the lightening bolt. Not to me, not to anyone in my family. Just… just don't do it."

Alex grinned and ran her fingers over the paint marks: Maggie beamed like she was watching Alex meet her first child, and it occurred to Alex that she probably was.

"You're not even gonna give me a hint?" Alex imitated Maggie, tossing her bag lightly up into the back of the truck, her hands then free to pull Maggie toward her by the hips. "You fly me hundreds of miles to come home with you for the holidays, all so I don't get to find out every single tiny detail about your…" She glanced back at the lightening bolt. "perhaps _questionable_ painting decisions and other such childhood passions?"

"Oh, you wanna learn about my _passions_ , do you, Danvers?" She leaned up on her tip toes to put her lips by Alex's ear. "I thought I showed you pretty well last night."

Alex bit down a moan and stammered to find words.

Maggie pulled back suddenly with a shit-eating grin and Alex nearly whined out loud at the sudden loss of contact. Maggie hopped into the front seat of the car and leaned over to open the passenger door for Alex.

"C'mon, Danvers! I promised my mom I'd get you there in time to let her fatten you up."

Alex stood for a moment, still frozen with Maggie's lingering breath and heady words coursing through her veins, before reminding herself that she is a DEO agent and defends the earth for a living and she could do something as menial as recovering from being turned on and compose herself enough to meet her first girlfriend's entire family on Christmas Eve.

"Alex," Maggie spoke again, softer now, reaching her hand out the window that she'd cranked down manually. "They're gonna love you, babe. C'mon, looks like it's gonna start snowing, and I wanna get you home before the roads get gross."

Alex nodded at the warmth in Maggie's voice, at the touch of her hand, at the assurance in her eyes, and climbed up into the passenger's seat.

* * *

Maggie drove with one hand on the wheel and one hand holding Alex's. She kept a fairly consistent running narration of the places they passed on the road, the places she'd show her in the coming few days: her old high school; the football stadium where she'd made out with girls underneath the bleachers; the state college where the only other people in town who went to college would go to; the one place to get coffee that had internet that she and Tommy practically lived at in high school; the field where she'd run sprints every morning

The information overload kept Alex focused (as Maggie had intended); it kept Alex grounded and it kept Alex excited to be learning more about the woman holding her hand, about the woman who was bringing her home to her family; it kept Alex from entering a state of complete and utter panic at the fact that this woman was bringing her home to her family.

Maggie squeezed Alex's hand before letting it go to turn into a long, dusty road that led, she declared, "Home."

Alex gulped and Maggie glanced at her. "I got you, babe. You're perfect, okay? Just be you."

Alex nodded because she didn't quite trust her voice, and Maggie seemed to understand. Truth be told, Maggie was terrified herself; truth be told, her insides were shaking so hard it was a wonder she could keep her hands steady on the wheel. Truth be told, she would rather be storming a building full of hostile aliens than bringing a woman home to her family.

 _No_ , she reminded herself strongly, refocusing on the thought that had centered her the entire time. _Alex Danvers is exactly the woman I want to meet my family._

So her smile was genuine, and so was her nervous excitement, as two of the family's dogs came streaming off the porch, barking up a storm, to run alongside the pickup. She rolled down her window, despite the chill, and called out to them excitedly. Alex almost forgot to be nervous as she watched Maggie park outside an old wooden garage and all but leap down, straight onto her knees, letting the pups all but tackle her as she ran her hands all over their chins, their ears, their backs, their faces.

The next few hours, they both experienced in an utter blur.

Alex, approaching the dogs with as much caution as she might approach an alien, crouching down and waiting with her hand slightly extended until they decided that, covered in Maggie's scent as she was, she must be worthy of their affection.

Maggie, hands buried deep in her pockets after thoroughly and completely smothering her parents with full bodied hugs and kisses, shuffling on her feet as she introduced "My girlfriend, Dr. Alex Danvers."

Maggie, beaming when Alex went to shake her mother's hand, telling her what an honor it was to meet her and what a wonderful daughter she has, and her mother pulled her in for a hug instead.

Maggie, laughing as Alex was bombarded with questions by her younger cousins, as she answered each of their rapid fire ("So what does an FBI agent _do_?" "How old are you, anyway?" "A doctor of _what_ exactly?" "So you're a doctor _and_ an agent? Do you like one more than the other?" "So could you like, shoot someone and then sew them back up?" " _Have_ you ever shot someone?" "Has Mags told you about the telescope she built me? You wanna see it later?") queries with a smirk and the sharp-tongued skill of a DEO agent posing as an FBI agent.

Alex, melting when Maggie dropped to her knees in front of her youngest niece, still wobbling when she walked, scooping her up and making her shriek with laughter with kisses all over her belly.

Alex, gasping slightly for air as two of Maggie's younger cousins decided that if she really was an FBI agent, she should be able to handle a sneak attack piggy back ride, recovering quickly as she reached both arms behind her, secured both girls, and – after receiving permission in the form of love-struck raised eyebrows from Maggie – tearing through the sitting room, much to the delight of the girls and much to the bemusement of Maggie's uncle, chiding them to "Leave the poor girl alone, she only just got here."

Alex, offering to help Maggie's mother with the cooking before she even got the chance to be asked, and being subsequently dragged into the kitchen alongside a mock-protesting Maggie, rapidly adjusting to the flurry of tasks being sent her way and promptly impressing the hell out of Maggie's aunts and mother by being such an utterly speedy whiz with a knife.

Maggie, running her fingers down Alex's spine as Alex set the table with Maggie's nephews, rising to her tip toes to whisper, "you're perfect" in Alex's ear before coming back down to press open-mouthed kisses on her neck, eliciting an abundance of _oooohs_ and _ewwwws_ and other such shrieks from her pre-teen nephews.

Maggie, barely eating as she watched her family force second and third helpings onto Alex's plate; barely eating as she watched Alex make her mother laugh and her uncles lean forward to ask questions about the inner workings of the FBI; barely eating as she stared across the table at her father, solemn and silent, trying desperately to control her heart rate as she bit her tongue back so she wouldn't demand to know what his problem was this time; barely eating as she held Alex's hand right there on the table for everyone to see, because dammit if everyone else could bring home people they barely knew, let alone _loved_ , she could hold the hand of the woman she… well, she hadn't quite gotten around to telling her yet, but watching Alex charm the adults and entertain the kids, she knew she had to soon.

The Sawyer household had a tradition: clearing the table and doing the dishes would wait until everyone had the chance to sit, to rest, to drink wine, to nap, to laugh, to relax away the food coma.

Maggie scrambled to the recliner she claimed no one else was ever allowed to sit on, and squeezed over so Alex could sit, too, one leg draped between Maggie's, Maggie's head on Alex's chest.

"This okay?" they asked each other at the same time, and they both chuckled, leaning back to watch the younger cousins and nieces and nephews – who somehow, no matter how much food they'd shoveled down, still had the energy to run amok – jump over each other and rile each other up.

Maggie let her eyes close, let her heart rate simmer down, let her body relax in a way she never had with her arms around a woman in Blue Springs, as Alex played absently with her hair, pressing kisses to the top of her head, to her temples, every few minutes.

One of Maggie's uncles got a fire going in the fireplace, and Maggie huddled closer into Alex.

They must have fallen asleep like that, limbs entangled and Sawyer children crawling over them, because the next thing either of them knew, one of Maggie's uncles was slapping her knee lightly. "Clean up time, girls."

Maggie muttered something incomprehensible and Alex laughed lightly as they disentangled slowly. Alex, quicker to a state of alertness than Maggie, collected a stack of dirty plates from the table and started bringing them to the kitchen.

She stopped at the door at the sharp, frustrated voice of Maggie's father.

" – the arrogance of the girl. We let her be who she says she is, fine. We let her be around the young ones and we even let her bring a woman home for a high holiday, fine. We let her do as she pleases, and it spoils her, thinking she can be all over the girl like that. Kissing and touching and all that, in my house, in front of all the children. Did she forget where she's from, the way all the boys used to try to beat on her and that Thomas boy? She is who she is, I accept that, but to be so _public_ about it, I – "

He turned his head in frustration, then, and his eyes locked with Alex's wide ones.

"I'm so sorry, Mr. Sawyer. Mrs. Sawyer. I just – I wanted to put these dishes in the sink – "

"Don't worry, Alexandra – that _is_ what Alex is short for, yes? – you were only _trying to help_." She said this last part with a pointed look at her husband, crossing the kitchen to take the stack of plates from Alex and depositing them in the sink.

Alex swallowed and an awkward silence let the off-key Christmas carols mixed with Mario Kart-related yelping and protests to cleaning up from the next room settle heavily between them.

If Alex were anyone else, she probably would have flashed a small smile and retreated back out of the kitchen without another word.

But Alex Danvers wasn't one to retreat.

"Mr. Sawyer," she said softly, both hands dug into her pockets, "I didn't mean to, but I couldn't help but overhear – "

"Anyone could have," Maggie's mom interjected sympathetically.

"And sir, I… I'm sure you know that Maggie… Maggie's smart, and she's tough, and from the way you love your family so fiercely, I can… I can see that she gets that from you. From both of you."

She swallowed before pressing on, not noticing the kitchen door swinging slightly open, not noticing her girlfriend, frozen and silent and tensed at the threshold.

"Maggie can take care of herself, but I… you're scared for her. And I get that. But I… if there was ever a moment where she couldn't protect herself…"

Her mind flashed to Maggie getting shot; to Maggie getting kidnapped; to Maggie getting tasered unconscious; but she said nothing about those times, knowing what a big role secrets necessarily played in her own life and unsure which things Maggie chose to share with her parents.

"If she ever couldn't protect herself, I swear to you, I would be there, I would… She makes me so, so happy – happier than I ever even knew was possible – and I think I make her happy, too. I hope I do, because that's the only thing I want: to make her happy. And I respect it if you don't want me touching her so much in front of you, but I just… I care about… I… I _love_ your daughter, Mr. Sawyer, I would do _anything_ for her, I… Sir, I would _die_ for her, and in our line of work, that really does mean something. I love her, and I just… I just thought you should know that."

Silence screamed in Alex's ears as she looked down at the floor tiles that Maggie played jacks on as a kid, as she took a deep, open-lipped breath to steady herself, to give her the courage to look back into the face of the man that, according to Maggie, wasn't exactly known for his open-mindedness.

She was so focused on maintaining her composure, on not letting her hands shake or her knees tremble, that she didn't notice Maggie's mother cast a small smile in the direction of her daughter's hiding place, didn't notice Maggie's bowed head half-hidden by the doorway behind her, jaw open, heart racing, body processing. She didn't notice the door tremble slightly as the shoulder Maggie was holding it open with – stack of plates held half-forgotten in rigid hands – shook with the overwhelming sensation of floating, of flying, of crashing, of exploding.

"It seems," Maggie's father said slowly when Alex looked back up to meet his eyes, "that our Margaret has a taste for women as outspoken as she is."

Not knowing whether to take that comment as a good sign, Alex glanced at Maggie's mom, who was shaking her head but beaming at her husband.

"She'll be looking for you, no doubt," he continued. "She'll want to recruit you for the annual snowball fight she never fails to rile the cousins into."

Alex nodded, a good enough soldier to know when she was being dismissed.

"And Dr. Danvers – Alex – "

She turned back around just before she could notice Maggie slipping out of the doorway, tip toeing to pawn the dishes off onto a passing uncle.

"My daughter has a tendency to love people better than they love her. Don't you let her run away from you if she starts to be frightened that you're too good to be true."

Alex's heart broke and soared at the same time.

"Yes, sir. I won't."

"Good then. Now go beat her at a round of snowball fighting. The girl always wins and needs to be taken down a peg."

Alex grinned, nodded, and swallowed tears, nearly knocking over one of Maggie's uncles, his arms stacked with dishes, as she left the kitchen.

* * *

Her father was right: Maggie _did_ recruit Alex in a whirlwind snowball fight. And he was right about something else: she _was_ used to winning.

"You may be a cop, Sawyer, but DEO tactical strategies make NCPD plans look like a game of checkers," she'd taunted into Maggie's ear as she grabbed her from behind while her youngest cousins pelted her with snowballs.

"Checkers is a _great_ game, Danvers," Maggie teased back, and flipped Alex over onto her back in the snow, straddling her with a triumphant grin. "You should try it sometimes."

It took two hours, a bloody lip from a dirty snowball, three make out sessions behind a snow embankment, and Alex rallying every single cousin Maggie had against her: and the game was still deemed a draw.

Still holding their sides in pain from the final laughing fit that brought everyone to their knees, Maggie, Alex, and the cousins trouped back onto the porch, banging out their snowy boots and shivering out of their frozen, dripping outwear before stumbling into the warmth of the house, all chuckling to themselves, shoving each other lightly, and mumbling good naturedly about _cheated_ and _got her right in the legs_ and _we'll see who's laughing tomorrow_.

Maggie's parents doled out hot chocolate for everyone, and though Maggie's father avoided her eyes, her mother touched her hand warmly as she passed her a mug, and Alex thought she saw the ghost of a smile on her father's lips.

The fireplace was roaring and everyone tossed all the throw pillows and comforters on the rug in front of the hearth. The children, newly scrubbed and towel dried and in feety pajamas, eagerly traded in their previous forts of snow for the fort of blankets with their new favorite couple.

Alex swallowed, unused to so much affectionate physical contact, but found that as long as her body was flush against Maggie's, as long as she had a view from the massive windows of the snow falling outside, as long as she heard the slow sound of the children's breathing and sipping of hot chocolate, as long as she heard their grumblings about not being tired and the objection of both Maggie and their parents and older siblings that Santa wouldn't come as long as they were awake, all that unfamiliar contact felt fine. More than fine, it felt… _good_. It felt warm. It felt right. It felt… like home.

In pairs and in trios, roughly divided by age, the cousins, nieces, and nephews were slowly carried away to bed by their parents, all eyeing each other and nudging each other the entire time at the way _Margaret seems so_ _relaxed around her_ and _I've never seen her look this peaceful_ and _Well they can't seem to keep their hands off of each other can they?_ and _Or their mouths, apparently_ and _Oh, hush, you're just jealous, look how precious they are together_ and _I think they're falling asleep, let's leave them be_.

When the only sound left in the sitting room was the crackling of the fire, the tolling of church bells in the distance as Christmas Eve slipped into Christmas day, the slight patter of snow falling gently on the windows, Maggie shifted closer to Alex, kissing her jawline and looking up at her blearily.

"Alex."

"Mmm."

She swallowed and she told herself she was brave. "I heard what you said to my dad."

Alex blinked, the sleep disappearing from her eyes. "You… you did."

Maggie nodded into Alex's shoulder. "No one's ever…" Her eyes flooded with the ghosts of girls who swore she was delusional for thinking they would ever be interested in her, girls who spent hours kissing her and then telling their friends loudly what a freak she was, women who used her for everything she had and women who left her for her devotion to her work and women who called her ableist slurs.

But another time was the time to reopen those wounds, to bare them to Alex so she could kiss them, clean them, restitch them, help them heal properly.

Now, those things weren't important. Now, only one thing was.

"I love you, too, Alex Danvers."

Alex's chest wracked in a single sob and they kissed, and they kissed, and they kissed, as snow fell and fire crackled and Christmas blossomed in a house full of family, full of sleeping children, full of dreams and full of winter's night quiet.

They fell asleep with the blankets askew and their bodies wrapped up in each other and their lips still touching each other's softly.

When they woke in the morning to the sound of children and adults alike giggling and shrieking and whispering in delight, to the sound pattering feet scampering to the Christmas tree, they were fully covered in blankets, tucked in as neither of them had been in years.

Maggie knew no one else in her family who always made sure her feet stayed warm at night, who always made sure to wrap an extra blanket around her lower body to fend off her tendency to kick: no one did this, no one _knew_ to do this… other than her father.

And sure enough, when she woke in Alex's arms, an extra blanket was wrapped around her legs, and her father's Christmas morning hug was especially warm, for both her and for her girlfriend.


	12. Chapter 12

**A Very Crossover Christmas**

 _Well, we've reached that time: Day 12 of a 12 day series. Thank you so, so, so much – truly, from the core of my being – for all your kind words of encouragement throughout this journey. I means everything to me, so thank you._

 _Tomorrow I'll be launching, as requested, an "8 Nights of Danvers Chanukah" fic that I'm extremely excited about, so please tune into that, as well as to my already ongoing "I Didn't Know You Were Into Girls" Sanvers one-shot series._

 _Happy and safe holidays, and thank you so much again for making this writing experience absolutely wonderful 3_

 _And without further ado:_ _ **Kara invites Barry and Oliver's teams to come spend Christmas with the Superfriends!**_

* * *

Alex had promised to be nice.

She just hadn't _defined_ nice when she told Kara that she wouldn't beat Barry Allen into a pulp for recruiting her to help him fight off an entire invasion force of aliens on his earth.

"It's _Christmas_ , Alex, and I'm okay, it all worked out!" Kara had told her, for the thousandth time, before Barry and Oliver's teams jumped out of the interdimensional rift and into her ridiculously festive living room.

Well, it might be Christmas – there might be champagne glasses in everyone's hand and there might be a rather rowdy game of "which earth has better Christmas music" going between Cisco and Winn – and Kara might be okay – okay enough to have thrown what was sure to be the most superhero-full Christmas party of all time – and it might have all worked out, given that there didn't seem to be angry aliens clawing their own way through the portal into this earth.

But that didn't mean that Alex Danvers didn't have Barry Allen backed against the refrigerator – the Flash, the fastest man alive, legendary superhero – _cowering_.

Iris stepped forward but James touched her arm lightly. "She won't actually _hurt_ him," he whispered.

Iris arched an eyebrow.

"You sure about that?"

Caitlin's eyes were wide, Cisco's mouth was open, Winn's eyes were downcast in sympathy for Barry, and Sara was smirking, dragging her eyes slowly up and down Alex's body, making Maggie frown and shift closer to Alex – but not _that_ close, because it generally wasn't safe to approach her when she was _this_ angry.

" – the _height_ of irresponsibility," she was saying, holding Barry up by the collar, "not to mention massive selfishness and pure tactical stupidity. Do you have _any_ idea how _stupid_ your plan was? One alien against an _army_ , when we have an entire organization here that's experienced in these things, an entire army of our own whose entire _lives_ are dedicated to stopping the kind of deadly threats that you so willingly through _my sister_ into, alone and without backup? And _don't_ – "

She renewed her grip on his collar as Barry tried to stammer out words – " _don't_ even try to tell me that _you_ were her backup. How could you _possibly_ back her up when I hear she beat the ever living shit out of you all, at once, without even breaking a sweat? So how could you possibly _protect_ her against an army? And I don't care what your city thinks of you, I don't care what kind of _hero_ you think you are. The next time you need Kara's help, you do not whisk her off on her own, you do not take advantage of her good, eager to help heart. You get me, you get my team, you get my people, people whose lives are dedicated to doing what your teams are way in over their head even contemplating. Because so help me, if you ever bring _my sister_ on a mission like that without me there to watch out for her, I swear on everything you love, a brutal alien invasion force is going to look like _kindergarten_ next to what _I_ will do to you. Do I make myself clear?"

Barry whimpered for a moment or two, wondering if her question constituted permission to speak or to just nod meekly. He opted for the second, and she released him.

"Eggnog?" she asked, swiping a glass from the counter behind her and pressing it into his hands with a massive smile on her face. "You look like you could use some." Barry stammered something that he hoped was recognizable as English, that he hoped Iris, Caitlin, and Cisco didn't hear just as the squeak that it was. By the looks on their faces, he had no such luck.

"You make yourself quite clear, Agent Danvers, so let me return the favor: you don't get to threaten anyone on my team without going through me." Oliver's voice was calm, his face completely neutral, as he stepped up to Alex. Diggle groaned into his hands.

Alex gazed up into his eyes as Barry tried to touch Oliver's arm. "Ollie, really, it's okay, you'd get the same way if it was Thea, I understand, it's fine."

"No, it's all good, Barry. Oliver Queen, right? _Arrow?_ " And before he could even blink, Alex had _him_ , too, up against the fridge – good thing for Barry's super speed, else he would have been crushed by Oliver's back – and Felicity let out a small gasp.

"I _like_ this girl. She like this in bed, too, Sawyer?" Sara wanted to know, loudly, and Kara's ears turned an even deeper shade of red. Maggie spluttered and Alex just dug deeper into it, her forearm against Oliver's throat.

"You want me to put the threats through you, _fine_. You don't ever tell my sister she's not good enough to fight, you don't ever tell her she's not to be trusted, you don't ever make her feel like a reject, you don't _ever_ tell her she's not strong enough to keep up with you."

"Um… Alex?" Winn hid behind a facepalming Kara as he spoke. "You can't… threaten Barry to _not_ let Kara fight on her own and then threaten Oliver to _let_ Kara fight on her own…"

"You wanna watch me, Winn?"

James leaned into him. "Man, you _know_ better than that."

"I apologized to your sister, Agent Danvers. I was wrong to tell her not to fight. Now, I was under the impression that this was a Christmas party. I don't know if it's different on this earth, but in mine, Christmas parties don't tend to include threats of bodily harm."

"Seriously, Oliver? Yeah, they do." He rolled his eyes toward Felicity, who was shrugging innocently.

Alex yanked her forearm down from pinning him against the fridge, and Sara let out a groan of disappointment. "I don't like you," Alex told Oliver.

"Funny thing is, I like _you_ , Agent Danvers. Someone that protective of her kid sister? We probably have a lot more in common than you'd like to think."

They stared at each other for a long, long moment before Alex found what she was looking for in Oliver's eyes. "You get eggnog, too," she relented with a grin after a few moments, and he nodded his gratitude as he accepted.

"Are we… done with the Kara's sister going _What is the location of the rebel base?_ on people now?" Cisco wanted to know. Silence and furrowed brows greeted him from every side. "Come on, there's no _Star Wars_ on this earth?"

" _Star what_?" James teased, and Cisco blanched.

"What kind of hell hole did you take us to, Bar?"

Winn took a few deep breaths in his best Darth Vader impression, and Cisco breathed again. "Ahhh, you really had me going there for a second," he shoved into James, who laughed and flipped back on the endless loop of Kara's favorite Christmas music.

* * *

"How's your neck, man?" James asked Barry after Winn started using words with Cisco, Felicity, and Caitlin that James couldn't quite keep track of and after Sara gave up on trying to get him, Oliver, and Digg to compare bicep sizes.

"For _science_ ," she'd argued before Digg put his arm around her shoulder and led her away.

"Well, you know, super speedy healing, but… a little stiff." They both scanned the room, bustling with people and laughter and snippets of surprisingly excellently sung Christmas carols and eggnog and champagne, until they found Alex sprawled on the floor in a corner with Kara, Iris, and Maggie.

As Kara spoke – probably telling Iris a story that Alex and Maggie had lived through – Alex leaned over to whisper in Maggie's ear, stroking her hair and touching her cheeks and kissing her temples before grazing her lips with her own.

"Awwww," Iris interrupted Kara's story, and Kara adjusted her glasses furiously, looking away but smiling a megawatt smile at seeing her sister so… _relaxed_.

For once.

"How does she _do_ that?" Barry asked.

"Mm?"

" _That._ " He nodded his head toward Alex again, who was giggling now, eyes wide, her hands clasped together vulnerably at her chest, as Maggie told Iris something or other that was making Alex's ears go red, all the while sweeping Alex's hair out of her face with gentle fingers.

"You mean go from homicidal DEO agent to completely doe-eyed nerd in .02 seconds flat?"

Barry chuckled and nodded, and James smiled, taking a long sip of his eggnog while watching three of the women he cared for most bond with the woman who was Barry's entire world.

"Honestly? The answer's simpler than you might think."

"What is it?"

"Maggie Sawyer," James said simply, and as Barry caught Iris's smiling eyes from across the room, he suddenly understood Supergirl's sister a lot better.

* * *

When the oven chimed, announcing the readiness of the cookies within, Kara squealed and leaped up, dragging Alex with her for help. She nearly collided with a bemused, eggnog-sipping Diggle in her eagerness, and he chuckled and shook his head at Kara's over-the-shoulder apology and Alex's good-humored groans.

"John!" Iris called him over and he crouched down next to the women.

"We haven't properly met. John Diggle. I work with Oliver."

"Maggie Sawyer, NCPD. I uh, work with – "

"A combination of Supergirl and her sister, it seems," he offered graciously, and Maggie nodded, clinking her glass against his.

He sipped deeply and shuddered. "I think Sara spiked this even more than it already was," he chuckled.

"So Maggie, you don't have like, a secret identity or anything either?"

Maggie chuckled at Iris's question, letting her eyes wash over their friends, old, new, and newer.

"Nope. Not a superhero, not technical support, not _quite_ just the girlfriend, but…"

She shrugged and Iris nodded knowingly.

Diggle chuckled and watched Oliver watching everyone else, body alert but eyes relaxed, if confused by the joy around him.

"I think we've all got that title, Maggie, you, me, and Iris: not _quite_ just the girlfriend," Digg told them, sipping his eggnog gingerly.

Iris snorted and Maggie doubled over with mirth.

"We should get jackets," Iris wheezed, and Maggie slammed the floor with her hand.

Oliver, Barry, and Alex all glanced over at them quizzically.

"They're not… talking about us?" Barry wondered aloud. Felicity followed his gaze as Alex walked over to where she and Barry were standing.

"No. If they were talking about us, they wouldn't be laughing like… that…"

Felicity tilted her head and squinted across the room at Digg, Maggie, and Iris, the latter two now clutching at each other to keep from collapsing completely as Digg acted out some kind of writing on the back of an imaginary jacket.

"Yeah, they're definitely talking about you guys. For sure."

Barry took an unsteady sip of his eggnog, just as Sara strolled by. "Careful, Allen. Might be too strong for a teenager."

"I'm not a – I'm immune to alcohol, I – _Sara_!" But Sara was already gone, tugging Alex by the crook of her elbow near the Christmas tree.

"What?" Alex asked, eyes still on the laughing trio in the corner.

"You gonna slam me against a wall, too?" Sara's eyes twinkled, and Alex spluttered.

"I… I think my _girlfriend_ would have something to say about that." Sara smirked and glanced over her shoulder at Maggie.

"No one's saying she couldn't _come_ , too."

Alex spluttered again, and Sara's smirk changed into a warm smile. "You're cute," she told her, like she'd told Felicity soon after they'd first met, surprised by the awkward warmth she was finding in such a fierce soldier.

"But no, seriously, um… I just wanted to say…" Sara fidgeted, and Alex watched her closely. "Look, I know what it is to be protective. Of a sister. I…" Sara's eyes darted around the room rapidly, landing on everything and nothing all at once. "All jokes aside, it was nice – it was _moving_ – watching you advocate for Kara like that. It… I lost my sister, and it – it was nice."

" _Sara_ ," Alex breathed, wondering what else Kara had left out of her stories from the other earth. She held out both hands to Sara's forearms, but the woman stepped back quickly.

"It's fine, I don't want to do a whole thing, I just… I wanted to tell you that it's nice. Kara's lucky to have you, and you're… you're lucky to have her. Cherish it, you know?"

Alex nodded, eyes stinging and throat tight. Sara lifted one side of her mouth into a grimace and held up her glass. "Christmas."

Alex clinked her own glass against Sara's quietly.

"Christmas," she whispered as Sara strode away, leaving Alex to find Kara – dolling out nearly as many cookies as she was putting in her mouth – and pull her into a long, long, long hug.

* * *

"No no no, but okay, _Back to the Future_ , you guys gotta have back to the future."

Cisco shifted uncomfortably and Sara thumped Winn on the back as she passed by what she was thinking of as the geek squad. "Sensitive topic, IT guy, might wanna pick another franchise."

"Ah, so you know it's a franchise! So it _does_ exist on your earth!"

"Yes, Winn, Leonardo DiCaprio won all the awards as Marty McFly," Caitlin told him as Felicity swooned slightly.

"Leonardo – _what_?! Okay, okay, but music: did Beyoncé still drop _Lemonade_ this year?"

Felicity took her glasses off and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Senator Knowles sells drinks here?"

Winn leaned back and positively cackled with delight as Caitlin, Cisco, and Felicity glanced between each other confusedly.

"So hold up, though, I'm still confused – parallel earth trivia can wait – you designed Supergirl's suit _without_ a facility like S.T.A.R. Labs? What kind of twisted sewing polymer genius are you, Winn?"

"Hey! I do all that stuff for Oliver with three computers, wifi, and a keyboard."

Caitlin grinned and slapped Felicity five.

"No one's questioning your badassery, Felicity," Cisco held up a mock-impatient hand and turned to Winn for an explanation.

"Not only did he design Supergirl's suit without a proper lab, but he designed Guardian's suit all on the sly with whatever resources he could scrounge from the DEO," James told them, hopping over the couch to collapse next to Winn and thumping him on the shoulder lightly.

And just like that, Winn gained major tech support credentials on multiple earths.

Sara leaned on the side of the couch, sipping at her eggnog, half-listening to the geek squad babble about some computer program or other. Most of her attention, though, was in the kitchen, on Alex and on Kara and on the way Kara leaned into her when she laughed, on the way Alex kept blushing. It didn't take super hearing to figure out that Kara was teasing Alex about Maggie, and Sara sighed.

Diggle squeezed her shoulder as he passed her on his way to talk to Oliver. "You okay, Sara?" he asked in the same tone he'd used for months with Oliver when they'd all thought she died. Again.

She grunted, not taking her eyes off the Danvers sisters.

"So, you're either checking out Supergirl, checking out Supergirl's badass DEO agent sister, or you're thinking about you and Laurel."

Arms crossed over her chest now, Sara glanced in Digg's direction without actually looking directly at him. "Would it be super fucked up to be doing all three at once?"

Digg chuckled and pulled her into his chest. When they first met, she would have killed him – quite possibly literally – for the intimacy of the gesture. Now, she just sank into him slightly.

"Hey Danvers!" she called, drawing warmth and Christmas spirit out of her cold, soulless memories from her friend's embrace. Both sisters turned to look, faces frozen mid-laugh.

"Kara," she clarified. "Barry tells us you've got some neat parlor tricks up your sleeve. Something about cooking turkey with your face and popping champagne?"

"Oooh!"

J'onn groaned, bemused, and the Superfriends chuckled, shifting so their new friends from the other earth could crowd around a wide-eyed, grinning Kara.

Oliver didn't move from his spot by the hearth, arms crossed over his chest, but his eyes followed Kara sharply, full with more of a smile than anything else on his face or body would suggest, as Kara flared up the oven, made water boil, brought a tray of balls of cookie dough to a sizzle – and the cookies to their sweet-smelling completion – all by squinting at them.

While everyone was ooing and ahhing and "Can you make ice?" "Is that even edible?" and "How amazing must you be at physics to know how much pressure is appropriate to apply?"-ing, Maggie sidled up behind Alex, reaching her arms around her waist.

" _Somebody_ had an intense start to the night," she rose on her tip toes to whisper in her ear.

Alex pulled at Maggie's hands, securing them around her waist, holding their bodies flush against each other.

"It's all good _now_ ," she offered by way of excuse for her ruthless temper.

"Oh, I know, babe. But, you know the thing is… Sara said something about…" Maggie leaned up even closer to Alex's ear, nipping at her lower lobe, her actions and Alex's groan lost in the midst of everyone's fascination with Kara's tricks. "… whether you're that aggressive in the bedroom, too."

"Do you want to find out, Detective Sawyer?"

"I think I already know, but I uh… I wouldn't mind getting a refresher course, Agent Danvers."

Before she had her way with Maggie right there on the kitchen counter, Alex tugged her into Kara's bedroom, barely letting the door closed before pushing her up against the back of it.

They froze for a moment, eyes locked in a battle that Alex willingly surrendered, burying her hands in Maggie's hair and letting Maggie yank her hips flush against her body, nipping at her lower lip before swiping her tongue across Maggie's mouth in a way that never failed to make her entire body squirm.

Alex's hands ripped at Maggie's shirt, desperately untucking it so she could feel her skin, so she could trace the contours of her abs and slip her fingers under her bra, so she could make her toss her head back and sigh at the ceiling as Alex brought her lips down to her throat.

"Thank you," Maggie breathed between kisses, between flies unzipping and backing Alex up to the bed, between kicking off her shoes and locking her fingers with Alex's as she held her hand back on the bed.

"For what?" Alex asked, her tongue unrelenting against Maggie's.

Maggie pulled back slightly, looking down at Alex with tousled hair and swollen lips and love written all across her face.

"You're running buddies with all these… _superheroes_ , Alex, you… your circle is made up of people who do the impossible every day, and you're one of them, and you're still… you're still spending your Christmas party with all these incredible people…" She smiled slightly and looked away, shrugging at her own words. "… making out with _me_ , touching _me_ , lo—with _me_."

"Loving you?" Alex finished for her, reaching up now to smooth the hair out of Maggie's face, to trace her dimples with reverent fingers.

Maggie nodded with a question in her eyes, and Alex answered by leaning up into a slow, sweet, perfect kiss that she never, ever wanted to end.

* * *

Everyone was laughing and everyone was shouting, egging on both Barry and Kara, now, as they dashed around the apartment – or, in Kara's case, flew – as they were sent out on increasingly strange tasks – _come back with ice cream, come back with pizza, come back with a pizza delivery boy, have a Christmas carol sing-off_ – to see who could do them faster, who would return quicker, who would belt out Mariah Carey music better.

"You look freaked out, Oliver," Digg told him as both men observed the shenanigans in front of them.

"I _am_ freaked out." Digg chuckled and Oliver glanced at him. "These people, Diggle, this earth… How do they _celebrate_ like this, how do they… Kara lost her entire planet, you know Digg, her _whole world_ , and look at her, she's… I don't even know what she's doing right about now."

"What… what _is_ she doing?" Oliver leaned over to J'onn, who was also standing somewhat off to the side.

"Wait for it," J'onn told him, as it appeared that Kara was just holding a bottle of champagne. When it popped from the sheer pressure of her hands and everyone else roared and passed glasses around, J'onn turned to Oliver.

"You know my planet died, too. My people. Like Kara's. And I… In the hundreds of years I've had to grieve, to mourn, to rage, I never once thought that life could be anything but duty or survival, until I met those girls."

He glanced over at Kara, at Alex, who was now slipping out of the bedroom, her hair mussed and her shirt askew, holding Maggie's hand with a secret smile on her face, desperately trying to blend in with people who _weren't_ just getting it on during the family Christmas party in their little sister's bedroom.

J'onn shook his head and chuckled, and Digg did the same. Oliver just stared, blinking, a look of utter confusion on his face.

"It's unsettling. Watching their joy, realizing that they want you to be part of it. That kind of happiness… takes practice."

Oliver nodded gruffly, eyes keen on Sara as she sidled up to Kara.

"Anything else you can do with those hands, Supergirl?"

Oliver read her lips, and Diggle read her body language, and J'onn read Kara's blush and wide eyes and immediate stammering.

"Sara," Oliver and Diggle exhaled, just as J'onn breathed, "The Danvers girls."

* * *

"Hey hey hey, I wanna make a toast!" Winn was calling, tapping a spoon ineffectually on the side of the plastic mug Alex had given him, _since you broke the last three grown-up glasses we tried to give you_.

"You know two years ago, right now, I didn't have a family."

Kara touched Winn's arm as James smile down at her; Barry pulled Iris into his chest; J'onn looked down so Winn wouldn't see his smile; and Alex smoothed Maggie's hair and kissed her neck.

"Two years ago, I didn't have a family, and I didn't even really have friends." Felicity turned to Sara and gestured her to come stand by her with a small, warm smile. Sara took the invitation with a lump in her throat and a song in her chest.

"And then suddenly it's Christmas, and I'm not alone. Suddenly I have the best friends, the best family, I could ever have asked for. And let's be real, our Christmas party looks like something out of a _Doctor Who_ episode, except, well, travel between parallel universes in _Doctor Who_ threatens to collapse them all, so let's hope Cisco's portals didn't cause a rupture in – "

"Oh my god, you guys have made him _worse_ ," Alex groaned with a grin at a beaming Cisco and Caitlin. Even Oliver laughed, and Digg nudged him in the shoulder affectionately.

"No, but seriously, though. It's Christmas, it's Chanukah – " Felicity gave a small whoop and Sara bit her lip. "And I'm surrounded by the best people I could ever imagine knowing, let alone being able to call my family."

Alex left a long kiss on Maggie's cheek and Kara beamed, one hand still on Winn's forearm and the other on James's shoulder.

"We appreciate you, too, Mr. Schott," J'onn called up as Winn swallowed back a tear or two.

"Awwwwww, _J'onn_!" James, Kara, Alex, and Winn chorused all at once, while Maggie laughed into Alex's arms and the sense of belonging each of them had searched in vein for their entire lives poured through their every vein like Christmas magic.


End file.
